Aquatic Biomes

1. Aquatic Biomes Environmental Science Instructor: E. Ennis

2. 75% - 78% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water Water on the Earth

3. What factors influence the kind of life an aquatic biome contains? • Salinity • Depth • Speed of water flow

4. Salt Water Estuaries** Coastlines Coral Reefs Coastal Marshes** Mangrove Swamps** Oceans ** May be brackish Fresh Water Streams Rivers Lakes Ponds Wetlands (inland) Major types of aquatic biomes

5. Types of Life in An Aquatic Biome

6. Phytoplankton • “Plant Plankton” • Free Floating • Microscopic • Cynobacteria or algae • Producers • Contain cholorphyll - photosynthetic • Support most aquatic food chains and food webs

7. Did you know???? • Plants in the ocean produce over half the world's oxygen. • The most important plants in the ocean are too small to be seen without a microscope. • They float near the surface and drift with the currents, so they have been named phytoplankton (phyto=plant, plankton=drifter). • Phytoplankton are the 'grass' of the sea. Where they grow there is food for marine animals. • Ocean color tells you how much phytoplankton there is in the water.

9. How do plankton stay afloat? Empty cavities Increase buoyancy Flagella allow weak Swimming or movement Spines – increase Surface area Chains or linking increases Surface area

10. Zooplankton • “Animal Plankton” • Non-photosynthetic • Consumers (herbivores) • Feed on phytoplankton • Single Celled Protozoa to larger invertebrates such as jellyfish • Many zooplankton are larval stages of familiar animals

12. Adult Stages Larval Stages

13. Nekton Strong Swimmers Consumers Fish, turtles, Whales

15. Benthos • Bottom Dwellers • Anchor to one spot: barnacles, oysters • Burrow in mud or sand: worms • Walk on bottom: Lobsters, crabs • Habitats: • Intertidal zones, rocky shores, tide pools • Muddy Sandy communities • Deep ocean/ coral reefs • Hydrothermal vent areas • archaebacteria

17. Decomposers • Break down organic compounds into simple nutrients that can be used by producers • Break down dead bodies and waste

18. Characteristics of an Aquatic Biome

19. Ocean Zones

20. Characteristics of an Aquatic Biome • Have more complex and longer food chains and food webs

22. Physical support from water buoyancy Organisms take advantage of water's buoyancy to transport themselves to nearby or distant habitats with little energy expenditure

23. A fish will float on top of the water if it weighs less than the amount of water it displaces (pushes away). • Most fish weigh more than the water they displace and would sink to the ocean floor. But, most fish do not spend their lives on the ocean floor.

24. They can do this because of an organ called a swim-bladder ( a built-in gas filled chamber) that helps the fish get off the ground and up in the water. • Some fast-moving fish and sharks do not have a swim bladder and therefore must keep moving or they will sink.

25. A big difference between fish and dolphins is that a fish's tail moves from side to side and a dolphin's moves up and down.

26. The more slender the body shape, the faster the movement

27. Fairly constant temperature

28. Water Availability • Oceans cover 139,400,000 square miles of the Earth’s surface • The average depth of the oceans is 12,238 feet

30. Why are oceans important? • Covers 71-75% of earth’s surface • Make up 99.5% of earth’s habitable volume • Contain 250,000 known species of plant and animals • Provide important and ecological and economic services

31. Mangrove Swamps (Forest) • Mangrove swamps are found along tropical seacoasts on both sides of the equator

32. Estuaries Where river meets ocean Brakish water = salt and freshwater

33. Major ecological and economic services provided by marine systems

34. Food

35. Ocean transport is the backbone of internal trade Transportation

36. Coastal Habitats and Employment for Humans

37. Recreation

38. Offshore Oil and Natural Gas / Minerals

39. FRESHWATER Freshwater is water that has no salt in it. Examples included in freshwater are ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, and wetlands.

40. How much freshwater? • Of all the water available on Earth… • Only 3% is freshwater • Of the 3% freshwater, 2% is tied up in glaciers and icebergs… • Only leaving less than 1% available to humans.

41. Limnology The study of fresh water and its ecosystems The study of freshwater ecosystems can be divided into 2 systems 1. Lentic – standing water (little or no current) 2. Lotic – flowing water

42. Examples of Lentic Systems • Standing water • Lakes • Ponds • Wetlands • Marshes • Swamps • bogs

43. Plant Life Water Lilly Cattail There are many different plants in a freshwater biome. A few examples are water lilies, algae, cattails, and duckweed. Animal Life Turtle There are a variety of animals that live in freshwater biomes. A few examples are fish, birds, insects, turtles, and frogs. Fish

44. Freshwater BiomesStreams and Rivers • have low salt concentration • water flows down a slope • the greater the slope, the faster the current and the lower the nutrients • higher concentrations of O2 • plants include algae, cattails, shrubs, • animals include fish, birds, snails, flatworms, insect larvae,

45. Freshwater Biomesinclude ponds, lakes, • have low salt concentration (most freshwater biomes have less than 1% salt) • plants include lilies, algae, rushes, cattails • animals include birds, fish, otter, beaver • two types: • Eutrophic = rich organic matter and nutrients, and murky • Oligotrophic = very little organic matter

46. Dilute pollution and protect against flooded Bogs, swamps, and marshes