Know your ecosystem

Freshwater Ecosystem – An Overview Most of the Earth Surface (around 70%) is covered with water, but not all the water is freshwater. Only 3.5% is freshwater, and the rest 96.5% is saltwater in the form of oceans. The Freshwater is found in the form of ponds, lakes, streams, frozen water, etc. other than oceans and seas. The freshwater ecosystem plays an important role in biodiversity. However, it is less extensive as compared to the saltwater ecosystem. freshwater ecosystem types and characteristics It supports various species of plants and animals. These species usually will not be able to survive in the saltwater ecosystem because their body is adapted to low-salt content, unlike saltwater species, which are adapted to high-salt content. Freshwater bodies are one of the primary sources of water supply for our daily uses; This ecosystem is known for “lower salt content water bodies” generally less than 1%. Follow this article to know more about characteristics and types of freshwater ecosystem and animals that belong to it. Freshwater Ecosystem Definition An ecosystem characterized by low-salt content, making a suitable environment for various plants and animals is known as a freshwater ecosystem. Freshwater resources vary in terms of size from very small to large. Freshwater resources also differ from each other in terms of their movement. Some freshwater bodies are moving continuously like rivers, whereas some others are stagnant like ponds. Table of Contents • 1 Types...

The Galápagos Islands, located roughly 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, remained a closely-guarded natural secret for millions of years. Over that time, the archipelago evolved into a home for an all-star cast of plants and animals. Sometime in the 1800s, some swashbuckling pirates and intrepid explorers started arriving in the Galápagos Islands. The most famous early visitor was Charles Darwin, a young naturalist who spent 19 days studying the islands' flora and fauna in 1835. In 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which introduced his theory of evolution — and the Galápagos Islands — to the world. Male boobies are judged not just by the color of their feet - but by how well they dance. Jessie Reeder/Getty Images Biodiversity brings over 100,000 visitors each year to these remote islands that were totally unknown to the world until 1535. Without the influence of a human presence, the island's flora and fauna, and the surrounding Hikers take a stroll on the Galapagos Islands. Getty/Barry Lewis There's no bad time to visit the Galápagos Islands. No matter what time of year you go, the adventure is sure to be unique and wonderful. June through December are the cooler and drier months. Even though this is the dry season, a garúa (or light, misty rain) is still possible, particularly in December and skies can be cloudy and gray. Water temperatures vary throughout the year because of the powerful ocean currents in the archipelago. In the cool and dry season (Jun...

The more we learn about the Earth’s ecosystems, the more we discover how elegantly, beautifully and mind-numbingly complex are the interactions among humans, animals, plants and their environment. Life, it turns out, really does come with myriad That’s what makes a project just getting under way in the South Pacific so ambitious and fascinating: A U.S.-French research team led by biologists from the University of California, Berkeley, is setting out to take a “This is the first effort to catalog and barcode an entire tropical ecosystem, from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the mountains,” said George Roderick, UC Berkeley professor of environmental science, policy and management, and one of the project’s principal investigators. “We’re constructing a library of genetic markers and physical identifiers for every species of plant, animal and fungi on the island, then making that database publicly available as a resource for ecologists and evolutionary biologists around the world.” The island in question is Moorea, a 51-square-mile island that includes coral reefs, tropical forests and mountains. Researchers believe the island is small enough for them to realistically genetically catalog and bar-code while complex enough that their model will eventually apply to larger ecosystems around the world. Moorea is home to at least 5,000 different species of animals, plants and fungi, although Chris Meyer, a research zoologist at the Smithsonian Institute, said, “I’d be disappo...