1. Chapter 10: Freshwater Biomes
Freshwater is less than 3% of the Hydrosphere.
90% of the freshwater is locked beneath the Earth’s surface.
Water is cycled through evaporation and transpiration from the atmosphere to the land and back again.

2. 10.1 Aquatic Biomes
Land biomes cover less than 30% of the Earth’s surface.
Aquatic biomes contains organisms that live in water.
Two factors that are used to classify aquatic biomes:
1. The amount of salt in the water - salinity
2. The depth of the water and the amount of sunlight that reaches it

3. 10.1 Aquatic Biomes
Salinity – the amount of dissolved salts in a sample of water
Salinity is measured in parts per thousand (ppt)
Aquatic biomes are divided into two groups: saltwater and freshwater
Saltwater biomes have 30 ppt – (oceans, seas)
Freshwater biomes have 0.5 or less ppt (lakes, ponds, rivers)

4. 10.1 Aquatic Biomes
Brackish water is more salty that fresh but less than the ocean – (anywhere freshwater meets with sea water – marshes, deltas, estuaries)
Hypersaline – more salt than the ocean - 40 ppt (the Great Salt Lake –Utah and Mono Lake – California)

5. 10.1 Aquatic Biomes
Depth
Available sunlight is the determining factor for water depth.
Sunlight amount determines types of plants that can grow
Producers are the base of all aquatic food webs

6. 10.1 Aquatic Biomes Depth - Three layers:
Photic zone – top layer of water gets enough sunlight for photosynthesis to about (100 m in open ocean)
Aphotic zone – sunlight never reaches this zone (only deep lakes and ocean)
Benthic zone – the floor of a body of water.

7. 10.2 Freshwater Ecosystems
Freshwater biomes divided into TWO classifications:
Standing-water – lakes, ponds, bogs swamps, marshes. Water does not move in and out but does move within the system.
Flowing-water – Rivers, streams. Water moves in, out and through the system

8. 10.2 Standing-Water Biomes
Upper level – warm, gets most sunlight. Contains plankton – microorganisms that float on the surface of the water.
Phytoplankton – perform photosynthesis, make their own food (producers)
Zooplankton – cannot perform photosynthesis, eat phytoplankton (consumers)

9. 10.2 Standing-Water Biomes
Benthic level – cool, gets little or no sunlight. Contains scavengers that consume dead organisms.
Food Chain: Small fish eat plankton and insects, larger fish eat small fish.

10. 10.2 Standing-Water Biomes
WETLANDS
Found where water and land meet.
Roots of plants are under water part or all of the year.
Soils are soaked with water.
Water can be fresh or brackish

11. 10.2 Standing-Water Biomes
Wetlands act as water filters - remove chemicals from water as it passes through them.
Can be used as treatment for waste water.
Important breeding, feeding and resting areas for migrating birds.
Wetlands protect areas from flooding.
Refill aquifers

12. 10.2 Florida Everglades
Once covered the entire lower part of Florida from Lake Okeechobee to the Keys.
Area reduced through human activity (draining) from over 150 miles to just 1,508, acres

13. 10.2 Everglades Home to many rare and unusual organisms: Alligator
Florida panther
Florida soft-shelled turtle
Key deer
Great Blue Heron
Ibis
Florida Tree Snail

14. 10.3 Flowing-Water Ecosystems
Flowing-water ecosystems all have water that moves over land.
All water that moves above ground are streams
All water that move underground are aquifers

15. 10.3 Flowing-Water Ecosystems
STREAMS
Begin at high altitude, as runoff from melting snow on mountain tops
Gravity causes water to move downhill
Stream beginnings are called the “origin” or “head”
Water from the starting place is called headwaters
The water is cold and carries much material with it – called sediments

16. 10.3 Flowing-Water Ecosystems
Sediments are small particles that settle to the bottom of any body of water
Provide nutrients and place for plant roots to grow
Increases in producers bring increases of consumers
Sedimentation (sediment collecting) and soil erosion cause streams/rivers to change course - become more and more winding