Two Types of Aquatic Biomes Marine Saltwater Regions

Two Types of Aquatic Biomes Marine – Saltwater Regions – are composed mainly of coral reefs, estuaries, and oceans Freshwater Regionare lakes ponds, rivers and streams

The Pelagic Environment • The zone near the surface of the ocean. • Can be at middle depths above the abyssal zone, and below the sub-littoral zone

Benthic Environment • The region near the ocean floor and all of the organisms that live in or on it. • Ocean floor is divided into zones based on where benthos live • ISBAH is an acronym to describe the depth from shallowest to deepest

Marine – Saltwater Region • 3% salt by concentration & 97% freshwater • Ocean is largest ecosystem on Earth • Salt water evaporates and turns to rain

Littoral Zone • Zone that is closest to the shore • Sunlight reaches all the way to the bottom • Producers here are plants rooted to the bottom, • consumers here are snail, flatworms, frogs and fish

Limnetic Zone • Open water where photosynthesis occurs • most often found in large lakes • Very shallow • Plankton and actively swimming fish live here

Profundal Zone • Very deep and towards the bottom of a lake or large pond • Not enough light reaches here • Organic matter falls from other zones to settle on the bottom where benthos live

Watershed • the region of land whose water drains into a specified body of water • A drainage basin such as dog river which gets the end results of streams around Mobile county

Estuary • Marine environments begin here • Areas where freshwater rivers or streams empty into areas of saltwater • Mobile Bay is an estuary that empties into the Gulf of Mexico, and then to the Atlantic Ocean

River Delta • A delta is a landform where the mouth of a river flows into an ocean, sea, desert, estuary or lake • Sediment carried by the river and deposited as the water current ends Nile River Delta

Other Marine Environments • River – bodies of flowing water moving in one direction • Photosynthesis - is the process by which plants, some bacteria, use the energy from sunlight to produce sugar, • Oxbow Lake – a lake formed when a river changes its course and the source is diverted away. • Wetlands – areas of standing water (swamp, marsh, everglades)

Other Terms • • • Tributary- a stream that flows into a lake or larger stream Load- materials carried by a stream Sediment-eroded soil or material Erosion – the process where soil is transported or removed Deposition – is the process where material lays to rest Salinity- a measure of the amount of salt in a given amount of liquid • Flora - all plant life occurring in an area or time period • Fauna -a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, – Two Types of Plankton • Zooplankton- the (small animal) consumers that feed on phytoplankton, • Phytoplankton- microscopic organisms that float near the surface of the water; they make their own food like plants on land do