Freshwater

Jeremy P. and Alex G.
=__Freshwater__= = =


 * The Freshwater Biome has a lot of plants and animals and a very distinct climate. This biome is located mostly all over the world. Freshwater ecosystems include lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams. Lakes are large bodies of freshwater surrounded by land, while ponds are smaller bodies of water surrounded by land. Most lakes are still and contain diverse plant and animal life. Rivers and streams are moving bodies of freshwater, which usually originate in mountains and come from melting ice or ground water and eventually flow into the ocean. This causes ox bow lakes, caverns, and canyons. If you look at the map under this text, the yellow blots indicate the regions of freshwater on all the continent.**


 * [[image:http://green.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/Environment/Images/Habitat/Freshwater/map-world-freshwater-580.jpg width="813" height="423" align="left"]] ||
 * [[image:240px-Haeckel_Chelonia.jpg width="193" height="148"]][[image:!potm-dec03.jpg width="206" height="149"]][[image:Eurasian_Otter.jpg width="212" height="149"]][[image:Beaver.jpg width="209" height="149"]]

__Climate and Regions__ The Freshwater climate varies from top to bottom. During the summer, the climate ranges from 4°C at the bottom and 22°C at the top of the lake. During the winter season, the bottom ranges about 4° and at the top 0°C. The** **Littoral Zone, or the warm zone close to shore holds a lot of different organisms. The** **Limnetic Zone, also known as the open surface water, holds the Phytoplankton and Zooplankton that plays a very important role in the food chain for other freshwater fish. The last zone is called the** **Profundal Zone. This zone is shrouded by darkness and is inhabited by decaying organisms and the organisms that feed on those.

__Organisms and Lifeforms__ The Freshwater biome has 41% of the world's known fish population. The animals of the freshwater biome are divided into two groups:** **Autotrophic organisms and** **Heterotrophic organisms. Autotrophic organisms are organisms that produce organic materials from inorganic compounds. Heterotrophic organisms are organisms that eat and digest autotrophic organisms and use the organic materials in the autotrophic organisms to create their own energy.**

The Freshwater community is filled with many different monera, protists, fungi, plants, and animals. A moneran that dwells in freshwater is known as a Oscillatoria. This particular moneran is a cyanobacteria. One freshwater protist is called the viridis or the scientific name of the viridis is the Euglena viridis. The viridis is also known to be a cyanobacteria. Fungi also exist underwater like the ingoldian fungi, also known as the Aquatic hyphomycetes. This fungus usually dwells at streams, lakes, and rivers. A plant of the freshwater ecosystem is the fat choy or scientifically known as the Nostoc flagelliforme. The fat choy is commonly served as a hair like vegetable in China durring festival season. An animal known to the freshwater habitat is the great crested grebe, or as scientists call it the Podiceps cristatus. There are estimated to be 530,000-1,700,000 great creasted grebe in the world.**
 * __The Kingdoms__

»Click here for Freshwater Facts.
 * __MORE LINKS...__**

»Click here for Freshwater Fiction.

»Click here for Freshwater Food Web.

»Click here for Freshwater Bibliography.

»Click here for Freshwater Pictures.