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Aquatic Biomes
Water on the Earth
Land
22%
Water
78%

75% - 78% of the Earth’s surface is covered in water
Why are oceans important?
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
 Almost half the oxygen in the atmosphere
comes from photosynthesis in the ocean.
 Covers
Terrestrial Biomes
 Terrestrial
Biomes usually are determined
by three major factors:

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Latitude
Rain
Temperature
However, this is not the case for aquatic
biomes.
What factors influence the kind of
life an aquatic biome contains?
 Salinity
 Depth
 Speed
of water flow
Types of Life in An
Aquatic Biome
Major types of aquatic biomes

Salt Water

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Estuaries**
Coastlines
Coral Reefs
Coastal Marshes**
Mangrove Swamps**
Oceans
** May be brackish

Fresh Water

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Streams
Rivers
Lakes
Ponds
Wetlands (inland)
Saltwater Biomes
Zones
Intertidal zone
 This
is where the ocean meets the land
 Tide and waves mean the communities
are constantly changing.
 Very few algae and plants can establish
themselves due to mud and sand
movement.
 Flora: few species of algae and seaweed
 Fauna: snails, crabs, sea stars, and small
fishes.
Intertidal zone
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u64pp
KBY3cM

Pelagic Zone
 Includes
those waters further from the
land, basically the open ocean.
 The pelagic zone is generally cold though
it is hard to give a general temperature
range
 Flora: include surface seaweeds and
plankton.
 Fauna: include many species of fish, and
mammals like whales and dolphins.
Benthic Zone
 The
area below the pelagic zone, but does
not include the very deepest parts of the
ocean. The bottom of the zone consists of
sand, slit, and/or dead organisms.
Temperature decreases as depth
increases, due to a lack of light.
 Flora: seaweed
 Fauna: include all sorts of bacteria, fungi,
sponges, sea anemones, worms, sea
stars, and fishes.
Abyssal zone
 The
deep ocean. The water in this region
is very cold (around 3° C), highly
pressured, high in oxygen content, but low
in nutritional content.
 Fauna: many species of invertebrates and
fishes. Chemosynthetic bacteria live near
thermal vents These bacteria are thus the
start of the food web as they are eaten by
invertebrates and fishes.
Abyssal zone
 http://www.untamedscience.com/biology/bi
omes/deep-sea-biome/
Plankton
…..not what I had in mind
Phytoplankton

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“Plant Plankton”
Free Floating
Microscopic
Cynobacteria or algae
Producers
Contain cholorphyll photosynthetic
Support most
aquatic food chains
and food webs
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7sAC
T0Dx0Q
Zooplankton


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“Animal Plankton”
Non-photosynthetic
Consumers
(herbivores)

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Feed on phytoplankton
Single Celled Protozoa to
larger invertebrates such
as jellyfish
Many zooplankton are
larval stages of familiar
animals
Larval
Stages
Adult
Stages
Food Chain
Food Chains and Webs
 Aquatic
ecosystems tend to have more
complex and longer food chains and food
webs
This is a Grouper.
 It
can weigh over 600lbs…..(what does
that look like??)
Like this..
And This..
How does it stay afloat?
Physical support from water
buoyancy
Organisms take
advantage of
water's buoyancy
to transport
themselves to
nearby or distant
habitats with little
energy
expenditure
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.

 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.
Mangrove Swamps (Forest)

Mangrove swamps
are found along
tropical seacoasts
on both sides of the
equator
Estuaries
Where river
meets ocean
Brakish water =
salt and freshwater
Freshwater is water that has no salt in it.
Examples included in freshwater are ponds
and lakes, streams and rivers, and wetlands.
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.
1%
2%
97%
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
Examples of Lentic Systems

Standing water
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Lakes
Ponds
Wetlands
• Marshes
• Swamps
• bogs
Water Lilly
Cattail
There are many different plants in a freshwater biome.
A few examples are water lilies, algae, cattails, and duckweed.
Turtle
There are a variety of animals that live in freshwater biomes.
A few examples are fish, birds, insects, turtles, and frogs.
Fish
Freshwater Biomes
Streams 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,
Freshwater Biomes
include ponds, lakes,
have
low salt concentration
(most freshwater biomes have
less than 1% salt)
Flora: lilies, algae, rushes,
cattails
Fauna: birds, fish, otter,
beaver
two types:
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Eutrophic = rich organic matter and
nutrients, and murky
Oligotrophic = very little organic matter