CHAPTER III

AQUATIC
BIODIVERISTY
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson the students should be

able to:
a. define aquatic ecosystem;
b. describe the importance of aquatic resources;
and
c. relate the importance of aquatic ecosystem to real
life scenario.
 AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM

• is an ecosystem in a body of water. Communities

of organisms that are dependent on each other
and on their environment live in aquatic
ecosystems.
• The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are
marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems.
 LESSON 1:
What is the general nature
of aquatic ecosystems?
Global ocean is divided into 4:
• ATLANTIC
• PACIFIC
• ARCTIC
• INDIAN

The distribution of many aquatic organisms is determined largely by

the water’s salinity—the amounts of various salts such as sodium
chloride (NaCl) dissolved in a given volume of water.
The salty oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface. Almost all of the earth’s water is
in the interconnected oceans, which cover 90% of the planet’s mostly ocean
hemisphere (left) and half of its land–ocean hemisphere (right). Freshwater systems
cover less than 2.2% of the earth’s surface.
 AQUATIC LIFE ZONES

saltwater or marine (oceans freshwater (lakes,

and their accompanying rivers, streams, and
estuaries, coastal wetlands, inland wetlands)
shorelines, coral reefs, and
mangrove forests)
 Conclusion

Saltwater and freshwater life zones contain

several major types of organisms. One such type
consists of weakly swimming, free-floating
plankton
• Phytoplankton (“FY-toe-plank-ton”) Greek
for “drifting plants”, which includes
many types of algae. They and various
rooted plants near shorelines are
primary producers that support most
aquatic food webs.
• Zooplankton (“ZOH-uh-plankton”) Greek for
“drifting animals”. They consist of primary
consumers (herbivores) that feed on
phytoplankton and secondary consumers
that feed on other zooplankton. They range
from single-celled protozoa to large
invertebrates such as jellyfish.
• Ultraplankton- consists of huge populations of
much smaller plankton. These extremely
small photosynthetic bacteria may be
responsible for 70% of the primary
productivity near the ocean surface.
⚬ nekton, strongly swimming consumers
such as fish, turtles, and whales.
⚬ benthos, consists of bottom dwellers such as
oysters, which anchor themselves to one
spot; clams and worms, which burrow into
the sand or mud; and lobsters and crabs,
which walk about on the sea floor
⚬ decomposers, which break down organic
compounds in the dead bodies and wastes of
aquatic organisms into nutrients that can be
used by aquatic primary producers.