APES Unit 4 - Aquatic Biodiversity

Coastal

warm, nutrient rich, shallow water with 10% ocean area and 90% ocean biodiversity

Euphotic

shallow zone in open ocean which sunlight can penetrate and productivity based on phytoplankton

phytoplankton

Produces ocean’s O2

Abyssal Zone

Deepest ocean, highest pressure, and no light

Bathyal

Deeper zone with little to no light

Open Ocean

Euphotic and has low productivity per unit area but is high in total due to large area + phytoplankton

Mangrove Forest

Trees adapted to low O2 saltwater, provides nursery habitat, and protects coastlines, reducing floods

Agriculture, Aquaculture, and Development

Affects mangrove forests, killing them

Coral reefs

Contains symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae, creating limestone crust by coral polyps in coastal shallows waters of tropical areas

Littoral

shallow sunlit part along the shore where plants are rooted

limnetic

sunlit part away from the shore,

profundal

deeper water that has lower O2 level,

benthic

deepest bottom of the lake and consists mostly of decomposer organisms.

Headwaters

where rivers start in the mountains, has high O2 level and water is fast moving and cold.

Floodplain

lower elevation area of the river where it has slowed down, water is warmer, has lower O2 level, and has nutrient rich soils for agricultural areas

Wetlands

an area covered in water for all or part of year and has plants adapted to living in water.

wetlands’ benefit

Protects against flooding and filter/purifies freshwater

salt marshes

(marshes are dominated by grasses, do not have trees),

Estuary

River meets ocean and has range of salinity and animals adapted to it

Diversity Index

Assesses diversity or evenness of species within ecosystem with amount of different species and their relative abundance

Species richness

measure of number of different species present in ecosystem

species evenness

relative abundance of the various populations present in an ecosystem.