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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