Aquatic Ecosystem - Types, Function & Defination

Ecosystems are made by interaction of living things and nonliving things. Water supports many organisms' lives. to which Aquatic ecosystems are called water ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems are surrounded by water bodies such as freshwater habitats like ponds, lakes, oceans, rivers, and water-dependent animals. Within the phytoplankton and zooplankton is present and it makes complete ecosystems. Phytoplankton is also known as microscopic marine microalgae. Phytoplankton is the base of food webs. Diatoms are an example of phytoplankton, And krill, snails, worms, fish, jellyfish are examples of zooplankton. Various types of ecosystems include aquatic ecosystems such as marine ecosystem, lentic ecosystem, lotic ecosystem, freshwater ecosystem. Water also provides food, shelter, reproduction for water living organisms.

Type of aquatic ecosystems

Aquatic ecosystems are further divided into two types such as fresh water ecosystem and marine ecosystem.

1. Freshwater ecosystem

Freshwater ecosystems are a smaller part of the whole aquatic ecosystem. It includes lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, pools, and wetlands. Lotic and lentic habitats are part of aquatic ecosystems. Lotic is the Latin word that means organisms lives in moving water; And lentic is the Latin word that means organisms lives in static or standing water form. Swamps means ground where plants are not grown and a small amount of water is present.

• In the lotic water ecosystem water flows in unidirectional flow, in which many species of insects such as Beetles, flies are present and also several fishes are found such as trou, eel and minnov. Other mammals species such as otters and dolphins live in lotic types of aquatic ecosystems. River ecosystems are an example of a lotic ecosystem. River ecosystem includes biotic interaction with the plant, animal and microbes; and likewise the abiotic ecosystem is associated with the river ecosystem. Abiotic ecosystem includes physical and chemical interaction. River ecosystem is enriched with temperature, concentration of oxygen, pH and other habit related structures.

• Lentic ecosystems are habitat for algae, crab, shrimp, amphibian animals such as turtles, salamanders, frogs. Along with animals, plants live here. Lake ecosystems are an example of a lentic ecosystem. Lake ecosystem also known as lacustrine ecosystem.

• Swamps means low lying areas. Swamps are the shallow marshy area covered by water and plants are grown over that.

2. Marine aquatic ecosystem

Marine aquatic ecosystem covered a large area of the aquatic water ecosystem. Salt concentration is higher in marine water that makes difficult water environment conditions for aquatic life or aquatic animals. Oceans, seas, seabed, estuaries are part of the marine ecosystem.

• Marine ecosystem is further subdivided into ocean ecosystems, coastal ecosystems, Estuaries, Coral reefs. It contains biotic and abiotic factors. This ecosystem provides a source for wildlife and humans. Various types of lakes are found such as shoreline lakes, aeolian lakes, landside lakes, fluvial lakes, glacial lakes, volcanic lakes.

• Ocean ecosystems include various oceans such as the Pacific ocean, Indian ocean, Arctic ocean and Atlantic ocean. Among all oceans some are the largest and deepest ocean such as the Pacific ocean and Atlantic ocean, which provides home for many aquatic animals and plants such as corals, reptiles, whales, crustaceans, turtles, crab, large fishes; And plants such as water lily, water weeds.

• Coastal ecosystems are open ecosystems of land and water. It has a different structure and diversity of fauna than the coastal ecosystem. Crab, lobster, snails and shrimp are the fauna of the coastal ecosystem. Along with that, life cycle, physiological structure, behavioral adaptation of plant and animal is available, such as animals can drain excess water from the body that help to uptake gasses and nutrition from water; And plants have submerged types of roots which help plants survive in the water.

• Estuaries are the gathering point of sea and river, And it makes freshwater more saline. Tidal marshes, river mouths and coastal bays are examples of estuaries.

• Coral reefs are the rainforest of the ocean, in which they have diversified flora and fauna. These corals are made up from reefs by the help of calcium carbonate. These calcium carbonates are released from corals and it is responsible for the exoskeleton formation.