Aquatic Life Zones:

2 major categories
1. Marine (saltwater) Or
2. Freshwater

Types of organisms determined

by:
• Salinity
• Temperature
• Sunlight availability
• D.O. (dissolved oxygen)
• Nutrient availability
• Saltwater contains salt, or sodium
chloride. Freshwatermay contain small
amounts of salt, but not enough to be
considered saltwater.
• Salt in the ocean comes from rocks on
land. The rain that falls on the land
contains some dissolved carbon dioxide
from the surrounding air. This causes the
rainwater to be slightly acidic due to
carbonic acid (which forms from carbon
dioxide and water).
• In the beginning, the primeval seas were
probably only slightly salty. But over time,
as rain fell to the Earth and ran over the
land, breaking up rocks and transporting
their minerals to the ocean, the ocean has
become saltier.
• Rain replenishes freshwater in rivers and
streams, so they don’t taste salty.
However, the water in the ocean
collects all of the salt and minerals
from all of the rivers that flow into it
• It is estimated that the rivers and streams
flowing from the United States alone
discharge 225 million tons of dissolved
solids and 513 million tons of suspended
sediment annually to the ocean.
Throughout the world, rivers carry an
estimated four billion tons of dissolved
salts to the ocean annually.
 Salinity Region or
Rank Name Type
(percentage) countries

1 44% Don Juan Pond Salt lake Antarctica

2 40% Lake Retba Salt lake Senegal

3 35% Lake Vanda Salt lake Antarctica

4 35% Garabogazköl Lagoon Turkmenistan

5 34.8% Lake Assal Salt lake Djibouti

Israel, Jordan,
6 33.7% Dead Sea Salt lake
Palestine

Little Manitou
7 18% Salt lake Canada
Lake

8 8.5–28% Lake Urmia Salt lake Iran

9 5–28% Laguna Cejar Salt lake Chile

10 5–27% Great Salt Lake Salt lake United States

 Major types of Organisms
• Plankton: small free-floating
organisms
– Phytoplankton: plant-like
• Photosynthetic (use sunlight to synthesize
nutrients)
• diatoms, protists, etc
- Zooplankton: animal-like
• Heterotrophic (cannot make their own food)
• Protozoans (single-celled eukaryotes)
• Larvae
• Copopods, cnidarians, krill…etc. (jellyfish)

- Ultraplankton: TINY (less than 2 micrometers)

• includes bacteria
• Benthos (benthic organisms): bottom dwellers –
anchor to one spot, burrow, or walk along
bottom (worms, clams, crabs, lobsters, sponges)
• Nekton: active swimmers – don’t follow
currents
 Baleen whales: filter feeders
Plates (baleen) hang from upper
jaw – filter plankton from water
includes: humpbacks and blue whales
Toothed whales: teeth used to bite
and chew food
includes:orca (killer whale) and sperm whale
eat leopard seal and great white shark
 Marine Lifezone:

Subcategories:
* Coastal
* Open Ocean (Sea)
euphotic zone
bathyal zone
abyssal zone
 Subcategory: Coastal
• High tide to Continental shelf
• (Ample sunlight) high NPP
• Net primary production (NPP) is the formation of organic material from
inorganic compounds minus the respiratory losses of the photosynthetic
organisms.

• 90% of all marine species

1. Coral reefs: MOST biodiverse areas of all
aquatic life zones
– “The Aquatic Rainforest”
– Hundreds of thousands of coral polyps
excrete CaCO3 skeletons (Calcium carbonate is
used therapeutically as a phosphate buffer in hemodialysis, as
an antacid in gastric hyperacidity for temporary relief of
indigestion and heartburn.)
– Grow slowly, disrupted easily:
• Biggest threat: sediment run-off

• Bleaching (even from 1 degree temp

increase)
• Removal (aquariums/jewelry)
• Pollution
• Damage (tourists, anchors, natural
disasters)
• Overfishing
• Cyanide/dynamite “fishing”
–1 m2 of reef killed for every fish caught
2. Intertidal zone: shoreline between low and
high tide
• Tides caused by gravitational pull of moon
• Organisms adapted to HARSH conditions
•
3. Barrier Islands: islands separated from
the mainland by a shallow sound, bay, or
lagoon
• Constantly shifting beaches due to erosion
– Can be helped with a jetty
• Dunes – backbone that provides stability
– Plants hold sand in place
– Protect from natural disasters
4. Coastal wetlands: inlets, bays, sounds,
Mangrove forest swamps
5. Estuary: where freshwater meets
saltwater (mouth of a river)
 Marine Lifezone:

Subcategories:
* Coastal
* Open Ocean (Sea)
euphotic zone
bathyal zone
abyssal zone
 Subcategory: Open Ocean
1. Euphotic zone: top
• Sunlight layer: phtyoplankton =
photosynthesis: HIGH D.O. (dissolved
oxygen) and low dissolved CO2, big fish and
mammals
2. Bathyal zone: middle
• Dimly lit – little/no producers, zooplankton,
smaller fish
3. Abyssal zone: bottom
• Dark, cold, little D.O., nutrients on floor
• Chemosynthetic bacteria at hydrothermal
vents
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