Fresh Water Biomes The biome that is always moving to different places. Jose Luis Diaz Yareth Marquez Maria Flores

What is Fresh Water? Fresh water has a low salt concentration usually less than 1%. Plants and animals in freshwater regions are adjusted to the low salt content and would not be able to survive in areas of high salt concentration. There are different types of fresh water regions. The types of regions are ponds and lakes, streams and rivers and wetlands.

Ponds and Lakes: Many ponds are seasonal, lasting just a couple of months while lakes may exist for hundreds of years or more. Ponds and lakes are divided in three different types of zones. Depending on depth and distance from a shoreline. The three types of zones are littoral zone, imnetic zone and profundal zone.

The left one is a pond and the right one is a lake. (left to right)

Littoral Zone: This zone is the warmest since it is shallow and can absorb more of the sun's heat. It has many different living things which can include several species of algae, rooted and floating aquatic plants, grazing snails, clams, insects, crustaceans, fishes, and amphibians. The vegetation and animals living in the littoral zone are food for other creatures such as turtles, snakes, and ducks. The zone close to shore. Here light reaches all the way to the bottom.

Top left a snail, top right clams, bottom left fish and bottom right a turtle all these animals live in fresh water. In the littoral zone.

Limnetic Zone: The limnetic zone is well-lighted and is dominated by plankton, both phytoplankton and zooplankton. A variety of freshwater fish also occupy this zone. This is the layer of open water where photosynthesis can occur. The limnetic zone is shallower is turbid water than in clear and is a more prominent feature of lakes than of ponds. As one descends deeper in the limnetic zone, the amount of light decreases until a depth is reached where the rate of photosynthesis becomes equal to the rate of respiration.

These are two of the many fishes living in fresh water These are two of the many fishes living in fresh water. They usually live in the limnetic zone.

Profundal Zone: This zone is much colder and denser than the other two. Little light penetrates all the way through the limnetic zone into the profundal zone. The fauna are heterotrophs, meaning that they eat dead organisms and use oxygen for cellular respiration. The profundal zone is chiefly inhabited by primary consumers that are either attached to or crawl along the sediments at the bottom of the lake. The sediments underlying the profundal zone also support a large population of bacteria and fungi.

Fungi living in the profundal zone.

Streams and Rivers: Streams and rivers can be found everywhere they get their starts at headwaters, which may be springs, snowmelt or even lakes, and then travel all the way to their mouths, usually another water channel or the ocean. The temperature is cooler at the source than it is at the mouth. Freshwater fish such as trout and heterotrophy can be found there.

Fishes that are found in streams and rivers.

Wetlands: Wetlands are areas of standing water that support aquatic plants. Wetlands have the highest species diversity of all ecosystems. Many species of amphibians, reptiles, birds (such as ducks and waders), and furbearers can be found in the wetlands.

Where is fresh water found? The ten top places fresh water is found Iceland Gabon Peru Canada New Zealand Norway Congo Bolivia Papua N. Guinea Liberia

What causes Fresh water? Fresh water is caused when water flows from melting snow or rain it flows to the ocean. During this travel it goes through streams rivers and lakes. These areas create places for fresh water plants and animals to live.

Animal Adaptation The American alligator lays out in the sun because he is cold blooded and needs to warm up his blood so that he can be able to move. He also hunts during the night. The alligator is black so it can camouflage with the water to be able to catch its prey. When he swims his eyes are the only things you see. That way the prey does not see him when he is coming. The paddlefish’s most distinctive characteristic is its namesake shovel-shaped snout. This is used to filter plankton from the water through gill rakes.

These are two of the many animals that live in fresh water the information on their adaptations is in the top slide.

Plant adaptations The lily grows in fresh water. To adapt to this water it grown in large flat circles and not up. These great smelling plants grow slowly. They make it hard for fish to swim and water ski. Another fresh water plant is cat tail. This plant can filter runoff in the lake. They have two ways to spread seeds made by their flowers, and roots that creep, called rhizomes. Cattails use the wind to spread their fluffy seeds, and discourage over-population in well-established stands by emitting a toxin that prevents germination of their own species.

This are two of the many plants that grow in fresh water This are two of the many plants that grow in fresh water. This a lily and a cat tail the information about them is on the top slide.

Resources http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/exhibits/biomes/freshwater.php http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/F/Freshwater.html#LimneticZone http://www.nature.org/animals/reptiles/animals/alligator.html http://www.fws.gov/endangered/factsheets/alligator.pdf http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/weeds/lily.html

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