FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM

Freshwater ecosystems include lakes,ponds,rivers,streams, and wetlands. These ecosystems take up about 1% of the Earth's surface.

Wetlands are areas of land covered by fresh water for all or part of a year. Wetlands exist in every country from polar regions to the tropics.

From the Wetlands,I will be presenting swamps. Swamps is an area of land permanently saturated, or filled with water.

An Ecosystem is a community of species and their non living environment. Abiotic and Biotic factors interacted making it an ecosystem.

ABIOTIC FACTORS

• Non-Living things of an ecosystem
• Water Depth
• Sunlight
• Soil
• Temperature

In the swamp the average temperature is a low 39 degrees (F)and a high 72 degrees (F). Water depth is less than 0.7 meters. The soil is sandy, depending on location.

BIOTIC FACTORS

• Living parts of an ecosystem
• Plants - Poison Ivy, Cattail, Algae etc..
• Animals - Anaconda, Alligator, Bald Eagle, Earthworm, Fish, Frog etc..

Most common/unique plant is the Dogwood because it is found along the coastal plain from Eastern Virginia to Central Florida. It's unique because the leaf litter decomposes rapidly more than most species making it a soil improver to the ecosystem.

The most common/unique animal is the Beavers. They live on both land and water by creating dens or lodges. By adapting to the swamp their webbed feet act as paddles to swim through the ecosystems, clear eyelids make it possible for them to see underwater, and their specially adapted lungs can make them stay under water for at less 15 minutes!

COMPETITORS

• Animals compete for freshwater because in some areas there might be high levels of salt.
• Plants compete for sunlight and space to go through a process called photosynthesis.

This Freshwater food web will show you how animals and plants transfer energy through out this ecosystem.

Relationships
In this ecosystem there are two main symbiotic relationships. Commensalism - two species one benefits and the other isn't affected.
Mutualism- Both species are being benefit.

Example of Commensalism: A bald eagle eats a fish, it might leave leftover scraps behind and the earthworm decomposes it. It doesn't affected the bald eagle at all.

Example of Mutualism: While an alligator is getting its mouth cleaned by a bird. The bird also benefits because it receives food.

Many human activities have affect this ecosystem. Agriculture is widely known to create the most destruction in plants & animals. When farming, chemicals can wash into swamps. Making plants absorb this chemical (causing death) and it limited the food source to animals.

Conservative
Humans can help this ecosystem by stopping many things. Such as construction (habitation lost), building factories near the area (pollution) and hunting/fishing (throw off the food source).

High levels of salt and temperature greatly affect the organisms and population in the swamp ecosystem. Some insects can only survive in freshwater supply making the population on other animals decrease.

Sources:
wetlands.org
education.nationalgeographic.com
techalive.mtu.edu
This concludes the end of my Freshwater Ecosystem Presentation!