Subject:Applied limnology

Topic : benthos
Sub topic: phytobenthos
Presented hy: urwa noor
presented to:Mam umm –e-habiba
BENTHOS

 Benthos:
Also known as benthon.
Greek word benthos=‘depth of the sea’. Term benthon is given by Haeckel in 1891.
Community of organisms that live on river,bed,stream or lake.
Found in benthic zone .
This community lives in or near marine or fresh water sedimentary environments and outside to the continental
shelf.
Many organisms adapted deep-water pressure cannot survive in upper parts of water column.
 The pressure difference can be very significant (Approximately one atmosphere for each 10 meters of water
depth).
 Because light is absorbed before it can reach deep ocean-water ,the energy source for benthic ecosystems is
often organic matter from higher up in the water column that drifts down to the depths.
 This dead and decaying matter sustains the benthic food chain;most organisms in the benthic zones are
scavangers or detritivores.
 The main food sources for benthos are algae and organic runoff from land.
 The depth of water, temperature and salinity all effect when benthos is present.
 Benthic organisms
 Sea stars
 Oysters
 Calms
 Sea cucumber
 Brittle stars
 Sea anemones
 Play important role as a food source for fish .
Phytobenthos

 Phytobenthos means ‘plants of sea bed’.Both intertidal and sub tidal ,both sedimentary and hard.
 Such plants belongs almost to the algae although sea grasses which forms meadows on some subtidal and
intertidal areas .
 Are flowering plants or angiosperms.
 Algae of sedimentary shores are usually microscopic unicellular or filamentous and are known as
microphytobenthos.
 Marine algae on hard surfaces can range from microscopic singled celled forms to large cartilegenous plants.