Freshwater Ecosystems
This freshwater zone hugs the shore and is filled with sunlight, cattails, and lily pads.
What is the littoral zone?
This coastal zone is alternately covered and exposed as tides rise and fall.
What is the intertidal zone?
Most coastal pollution in the United States comes from waste and sewage carried into the ocean through this process.
What is runoff?
This property measures the cloudiness or clarity of water caused by suspended particles.
What is turbidity?
These microscopic drifters float near the surface and form the base of aquatic food chains.
What are plankton?
Boaters often fish here, in the open, sunlit water away from the shore.
What is the limnetic zone?
The majority of ocean life, including coral reefs, is found in this warm, shallow zone over the continental shelf.
What is the neritic zone?
When fertilizer and animal waste enter lakes and rivers, this process occurs, leading to algae growth and low oxygen levels.
What is eutrophication?
When this property increases, the amount of dissolved oxygen in water usually decreases.
What is temperature?
Strong swimmers such as fish, dolphins, and squid belong to this group.
What is nekton?
This dark, cold layer below the sunlight zone has little oxygen and few producers.
What is the profundal zone?
Below the sunlit surface, this dimly lit zone extends down to about 2,000 meters.
What is the bathyal zone?
Destroying or draining these areas removes natural flood protection and reduces water filtration.
What are wetlands?
These nutrients, often from fertilizers and animal waste, cause excessive algae growth when they enter waterways.
What are nitrates and phosphates?
Crabs, snails, and worms that live on or in the seafloor are part of this group.
What is benthos?
This zone includes the mud and sediment at the bottom of a pond or lake.
What is the benthic zone?
This deepest ocean zone receives no sunlight and contains hydrothermal vents.
What is the abyssal zone?
When power plants release warm water into rivers, this form of pollution lowers oxygen levels and can kill fish.
What is thermal pollution?
When fossil fuels burn, this type of precipitation can form, lowering pH and harming aquatic life.
What is acid rain?
Plankton are divided into two types—those that make their own food and those that feed on others.
What are phytoplankton and zooplankton?
Biodiversity in freshwater decreases with depth mainly because both of these factors decline.
What are light and dissolved oxygen?
Life in the abyssal zone depends on this energy process that uses chemicals instead of sunlight. .
What is chemosynthesis?
These colorful marine ecosystems are being damaged by overfishing, pollution, and rising ocean temperatures.
What are coral reefs?
High temperature and turbidity together reduce oxygen and sunlight, lowering this process vital for aquatic plants.
What is photosynthesis?
The main difference between nekton and benthos is that one actively swims while the other lives attached or crawling on surfaces.
What is movement?