CHAPTER 7
Aquatic Ecosystem
(Part 2)
TE/BIO330/2022
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Aquatic Ecosystem
A. Freshwater ecosystem
❖ Flowing water ecosystem
❖ Fresh water lakes
❖ Fresh water wetlands
B. Estuaries
❖ Salt marshes
❖ Mangrove forest
C. Marine ecosystem
❖ Intertidal zone
❖ Neritic zone
❖ Pelagic and benthic zone
❖ Oceanic zone
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LESSON OUTCOMES
AT THE END OF THIS LECTURE STUDENT SHOULD
BE ABLE TO :
✓ Briefly describe the characteristics of each aquatic
biomes.
✓ Distinguish between freshwater, estuaries, and marine
biomes.
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• 3) MARINE BIOME
❖ Divided into photic and aphotic zone.
❖ Photic zone - upper layer of water which absorbs
sunlight. Photosynthesis - uppermost region
(photic zone)
❖ The photic zone may be as shallow as 30 meters
in the North Atlantic Ocean or as deep as 200
meters in the South Pacific Ocean.
❖ Contain algae and phytoplankton.
❖ Aphotic zone -deeper layer of water which does
not receive sunlight.
❖ Marine biomes are divided into ecologically
distinct zones : INTERTIDAL ZONE ; PELAGIC
ZONE (or Open Ocean environment: Neritic
Zone; Oceanic zone); and BENTHIC ZONE.
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• Different zones in Marine biomes
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zones in Marine biomes
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❖ Intertidal zone
➢ Coastline area between low and high tide.
➢ Sandy beaches, rock, estuaries, mangrove swamps, and coral reefs.
➢ Species adapt and tolerate to drastic changes in surrounding -
pounding and surging of waves.
➢ High levels of light (Euphotic zone) and nutrients-Biologically
productive environment.
➢ dominated by flora: seaweed; fauna: clams, burrow, barnacles, snails,
sea urchins, and starfish.
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❖ Pelagic Zone:
Neritic zone
➢ Extends from the low-tide line to the edge of the open sea;
➢ Relatively shallow ocean; organisms are floaters or
swimmers.
➢ Primary productivity here depends on planktonic algae
growing as deep as the light can reach.
➢ Euphotic zone (from surface – below 100m) = zone for
photosynthesis
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❖ Pelagic Zone: Neritic zone
➢ Flora:
Large algae: seaweed are
abundant
Phytoplankton: diatoms and
dinoflagellates (the base of
food webs)
➢ Fauna:
Zooplankton: crustaceans,
jellyfish, protists, worms and
crabs
Plankton-eating nekton:
sardines, herring, squids and
rays.
Carnivorous nekton: sharks,
tuna and dolphins.
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❖ Pelagic Zone: Oceanic zone
➢ The average depth of the world’s ocean is 4000 m
or 2.4 mile.
➢ Open sea that includes the deep sea basin (ocean
floor with the depth that is more than 200m).
➢ Species adapted to darkness and food scarcity.
➢ Producers are planktonic algae or phytoplankton
that support secondary and higher consumers such
as fish in the nekton.
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❖ Pelagic Zone: Oceanic zone
➢ Growth of phytoplankton is
relatively slow as nutrients are
✓ scarce in most of the open sea.
✓ ➢ Primary productivity is pretty
much limited to the depths that
light can reach.
✓
➢ In spite of its diversity of life,
the net productivity of the open
ocean is little better than that of
✓ a desert.
➢ Photic and Aphotic zone
➢ Flora: phytoplankton (algae),
photosynthetic bacteria;
Fauna: giant squid, fishes, sea
turtles, and marine mammals.
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➢ Deep-Sea Zone
✓ Area of high pressure, cold temperature, and total darkness.
✓ Home to some of the Earth's strangest creatures – giant
squid/Gulper eels.
✓ Zooplankton which are free-floating microscopic animals wait for
night in order to migrate to the sea's surface and feed on
phytoplankton.
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❖ Benthic Zone
➢ Known as ocean floor.
➢ Divided into regions based on distance from land,
availability of light, and depth.
✓ The abyssal zone - extends from a depth of 4000 to 6000 m
(2.5 to 3.7 miles), dark, relatively unvarying region (inhabited
by benthos).
✓ The hadal zone - deeper than 6000 m.
➢ Aphotic zone.
➢ Water temperature declines with depth, while pressure
increases.
➢ organisms adapted to continuous cold (about 3°C) and very high
water pressure.
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❖ Benthic Zone
➢ Consist of sediments (sand and mud);
➢ Flora: Seaweed; Sea grasses, Kelp; Fauna: coral reefs, worms,
clams, burrow and bacteria
➢ Benthos: consumers and decomposers who depend on the
organic matter drifting down from the upper portions of the sea.
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Term Size Examples
polychaete worms,
Macro- pelecypods, anthozoans,
> 1 mm
benthos echinoderms, sponges,
ascidians, crustaceans
polychaetes, pelecypods,
Meio- copepods, ostracodes,
< 1 mm cumaceans, nematodes,
benthos
turbellarians, foraminiferans
Micro- bacteria, diatoms, ciliates,
< 32 µm
benthos amoeba, flagellates
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THANK YOU
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