Ch. 5
Although no two locations harbor exactly the same assemblage of species, we can group biological communities and ecosystems into categories based on climate and dominant plant form, which give them their overall character. These categories are referred to as biomes. Ecosystems belonging to the same biome type in different parts of the world develop a similar vegetation structure and similar ecosystem functioning, including productivity and rates of nutrient cycling, under similar environmental conditions.
Wetlands are areas in which the soil is saturated with water, including marshes, swamps, bogs, and mangrove wetlands. Wetlands support unique plants and animals and also serve important ecosystem functions, such as removing pollutants from water.
Estuaries, which occur at the mouths of rivers where fresh water mixes with seawater, support high levels of productivity. Because they are areas of sediment deposition, many estuaries are edged by extensive tidal marshes at temperate latitudes and by mangrove wetlands in the tropics.
The littoral zone (also called the intertidal zone) extends between the highest and lowest tidal water levels, and thus is exposed periodically to air.
The neritic zone is generally a region of high productivity because the sunlit surface layers of water are close enough to the nutrients in the sediments below that strong waves can move them to the surface.
The seafloor beneath the oceanic zone constitutes the benthic zone.
The open water beyond the littoral zone is the limnetic (or pelagic) zone, where the producers are floating single-celled algae, or phytoplankton.
Although no two locations harbor exactly the same assemblage of species, we can group biological communities and ecosystems into categories based on climate and dominant plant form, which give them their overall character. These categories are referred to as biomes. Ecosystems belonging to the same biome type in different parts of the world develop a similar vegetation structure and similar ecosystem functioning, including productivity and rates of nutrient cycling, under similar environmental conditions.
Wetlands are areas in which the soil is saturated with water, including marshes, swamps, bogs, and mangrove wetlands. Wetlands support unique plants and animals and also serve important ecosystem functions, such as removing pollutants from water.
Estuaries, which occur at the mouths of rivers where fresh water mixes with seawater, support high levels of productivity. Because they are areas of sediment deposition, many estuaries are edged by extensive tidal marshes at temperate latitudes and by mangrove wetlands in the tropics.
The littoral zone (also called the intertidal zone) extends between the highest and lowest tidal water levels, and thus is exposed periodically to air.
The neritic zone is generally a region of high productivity because the sunlit surface layers of water are close enough to the nutrients in the sediments below that strong waves can move them to the surface.
The seafloor beneath the oceanic zone constitutes the benthic zone.
The open water beyond the littoral zone is the limnetic (or pelagic) zone, where the producers are floating single-celled algae, or phytoplankton.