In nature there are different types of ecosystems according to their characteristics and their main environment. Today we are going to focus on talking about aquatic ecosystems. Here we find all kinds of living beings whose activity and life is established within a habitat that is covered by water. Aquatic ecosystems cover about 70% of the earth's surface. Its importance means that the human being will depend largely on these ecosystems.
Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to tell you everything you need to know about aquatic ecosystems, their characteristics and their importance.
Key features
The most important element of the earth is water. A aquatic ecosystems are made up of animals, vegetation, flora and other organisms that live in the water. Aquatic ecosystems are both freshwater and saltwater. Those of fresh water are lakes, streams, rivers, lagoons and those of salt water are oceans and seas.. All those habitats where life is housed and there is a symbiosis with fresh or salt water is considered an aquatic ecosystem.
It is about those ecosystems where the living components develop all their activities in water, whether salty or fresh water. By having adapted to aquatic ecosystems, they have been able to acquire closely related physical peculiarities and have evolved differently over the years.
Types of aquatic ecosystems
In order to study aquatic ecosystems, they must be classified into different types according to their characteristics. They are two large groups in which we divide, although they have in common that the main environment is water, there are differences in which to have interaction and flow between different living beings with their environment.
Therefore, they are divided into two large groups according to the criteria of interaction and flow between living beings with their environment and are the following:
- Marine ecosystems: the marine environment is made up of regions with salty water in which we find oceans, seas, marshes, etc. They are extremely stable in the development of life when compared to any freshwater terrestrial ecosystem. It is in the ocean where life arose and to this day it is still a completely unknown place for humans.
- Freshwater ecosystems: the freshwater environment is made up of regions with great biodiversity, species of all kinds. This area is known as lakes, swamps, rivers, etc.
In freshwater ecosystems there are large numbers of amphibians, although a huge number of fish associated with these habitats can also be found. It is found to an extensive presence of flora. The curious thing about rivers is that conditions can change between sections and regions, so if we analyze the total route of a river we can see that they have multiple microecosystems.
Another type of classification of aquatic ecosystems deals with the way of moving and the way of life of the living organisms that inhabit it.
Classification of aquatic ecosystems
We are going to see which are the following aquatic ecosystems depending on the movement and way of life of living organisms:
- Benthic: are those living organisms called benthos that are located at the bottom of aquatic ecosystems. These are areas that are not too deep where the main inhabitants are algae.
- Nectonics: They are living organisms that are called by the name of necton. They move freely and can actively swim in the aquatic areas.
- Planktonic aquatic: They are those living beings that are part of what is known as plankton. They live floating in terrestrial or marine water and are carried away by currents. Two can be moved by their own movements and are the basis of the food chain. They can be divided into phytoplankton and zooplankton. The first includes the organisms that carry out photosynthesis and are producing organisms such as microscopic algae and cyanobacteria. This group of organisms is vital for any aquatic ecosystem since it is the base of the food chain. Zooplankton is made up of heterotrophic beings that feed on phytoplankton. That is, they are primary consumers in which we find small crustaceans, animal larvae and protozoa.
- Neustonics: they are organisms that live on the surface floating and are called neuston.
Flora and vegetation
We must know that aquatic ecosystems abound with flora and vegetation. The places with fresh water are quite fertile and tend to have a greater biodiversity of vegetation. However, beach areas are more intermediate regions where ocean ecosystems begin to exist that have less welcoming substrates for some plants that do not support high levels of salinity. They are areas where it grows mainly in grasses.
In the strip of the most coastal areas, living conditions are somewhat more complicated. And it is that the beings that live in this area must continuously withstand the force of the waves during storms and desiccation when the cold good heat alternate. To deal with all these problems the vegetation adopted different strategies with mechanisms that allow it to adhere strongly to the rocks and more rigid shells. On the cliffs we can find some plants such as sea fennel that benefit from the small fissures that are generated in the rocks to grow. In addition, they are plants that tolerate salinity.
You see inside the saltwater aquatic ecosystems where we can find extensive meadows of phanerogamic plants such as the oceanic posidonia species. It is one of the most outstanding plants in this entire region since it contributes to the overwhelming stabilization of sandy surfaces.
Aquatic animals
With regard to animals, life has evolved in different areas. We find a wide variety of animals ranging from sponges to vertebrates. Let's see which are the main ones:
- Simple invertebrates: are those who do not have a backbone. We have sea anemones, jellyfish, all kinds of snails, etc.
- Complex invertebrates: they are the mollusks, arthropods and echinoderms that we have in both freshwater and marine aquatic ecosystems. Also included are starfish, bulbs, squid, some varieties of mollusks, crabs, etc.
On a higher scale we have amphibians and fish that already have a true backbone. Finally, mammals and birds have also adapted to both freshwater and saltwater.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the different types of aquatic ecosystems and their characteristics.