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An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems. [1]
An ecosystem may experience a dramatic shift if a keystone species is removed, even though that species was a small part of the ecosystem by measures of biomass or productivity. [158] Sea otters limit the damage sea urchins inflict on kelp forests. When the sea otters of the North American west coast were hunted commercially for their fur ...
Marine ecosystems are characterized by the biological community of organisms that they are associated with and their physical environment. Classes of organisms found in marine ecosystems include brown algae, dinoflagellates, corals, cephalopods, echinoderms, and sharks.
Lake ecosystem, also known as Lentic ecosystems – Type of ecosystem; Limnoforming – Introducing living organisms in a degraded lake to improve its biological activity; Limnological tower – Structure for the study of aquatic ecosystems; River ecosystem, also known as Lotic ecosystems – Type of aquatic ecosystem with flowing freshwater
Freshwater ecosystem. Freshwater ecosystems are a subset of Earth's aquatic ecosystems that include the biological communities inhabiting freshwater waterbodies such as lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, springs, bogs, and wetlands. [1] They can be contrasted with marine ecosystems, which have a much higher salinity. Freshwater habitats can be ...
Invoking images of the open ocean's surface, the imagination can conjure up an endless empty space. A flat line parting the blue below from the blue above. But in reality a diverse array of species occupy this unique boundary layer. A tangle of terms exist for different organisms occupying different niches of the ocean's surface.
There are also reptilian animals that are highly evolved for life in water, although most extant aquatic reptiles, including crocodilians, turtles, water snakes and the marine iguana, are technically semi-aquatic rather than fully aquatic, and most of them only inhabit freshwater ecosystems.
Aquatic insects live mostly in freshwater habitats, and there are very few marine insect species. [9] The only true examples of pelagic insects are the sea skaters , which belongs to the order Hemiptera, and there are a few types of insects that live in the intertidal zone , including larvae of caddisflies from the family Chathamiidae , [ 10 ...