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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]
Freshwater habitats can be classified by different factors, including temperature, light penetration, nutrients, and vegetation. There are three basic types of freshwater ecosystems: lentic (slow moving water, including pools , ponds , and lakess ), lotic (faster moving streams , for example creeks and rivers ) and wetlands ( semi-aquatic areas ...
Human activities affect marine life and marine habitats through overfishing, habitat loss, the introduction of invasive species, ocean pollution, ocean acidification and ocean warming. These impact marine ecosystems and food webs and may result in consequences as yet unrecognised for the biodiversity and continuation of marine life forms. [58]
A marine habitat is a habitat that supports marine life. Marine life depends in some way on the saltwater that is in the sea (the term marine comes from the Latin mare, meaning sea or ocean). A habitat is an ecological or environmental area inhabited by one or more living species. [1] The marine environment supports many kinds of these habitats.
Habitat can be defined as the natural environment of an organism, the type of place in which it is natural for it to live and grow. [4] [5] It is similar in meaning to a biotope; an area of uniform environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants and animals. [6]
A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Worldwide there is about 620,000 kilometres (390,000 mi) of coastline. Coastal habitats extend to the margins of the continental shelves, occupying about 7 percent of the ocean surface area.
This is a list of freshwater ecoregions as compiled by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The freshwater ecoregion system is similar to that for terrestrial ecoregions.The Earth's land surface is divided into eight terrestrial biogeographic realms or ecozones, which contain hundreds of smaller ecoregions.
Water birds are a group of birds that rely on aquatic habitats for hunting, resting, and sometimes nesting. [14] Birds that rely on freshwater habitats include birds such as kingfishers, flamingos, and various types of waterfowl. Many species rely on the plants in these freshwater environments for nesting material, habitat, and food.