What are the 4 main factors that affect aquatic ecosystems?
Factors that affect aquatic ecosystems include water flow rate, salinity, acidity, oxygen, light levels, depth, and temperature. Light levels affect photosynthesizing plants and predation.
Is light a limiting factor in aquatic ecosystems?
In aquatic ecosystems, the limiting factor for productivity is light.
What material is the largest limiting factor for aquatic ecosystem?
Phosphorus is usually considered the “limiting nutrient” in aquatic ecosystems, meaning that the available quantity of this nutrient controls the pace at which algae and aquatic plants are produced.
What four abiotic factors are important in all aquatic ecosystems?
Some of the important abiotic environmental factors of aquatic ecosystems include substrate type, water depth, nutrient levels, temperature, salinity, and flow.
Why is pH a limiting factor?
The pH is often a limiting factor of enzyme-controlled reactions. Dissolved oxygen – If water is unpolluted and flowing the saturation by oxygen should be just about at its maximum. Therefore, oxygen would not be a major contributory factor in the distribution of organisms in the river.
How does depth affect aquatic ecosystems?
Depth is known to influence many factors on reef ecosystems for both coral and reef fish communities, influencing the structure of coral reef communities mainly due to light attenuation, changes in water temperature and resource availability [9, 10, 11].
Why is phosphorus a limiting factor in aquatic ecosystems?
Phosphates are also limiting factors for plant-growth in marine ecosystems, because they are not very water-soluble. … Phosphorus cycles through plants and animals much faster than it does through rocks and sediments. When animals and plants die, phosphates will return to the soils or oceans again during decay.
Why is oxygen a limiting factor in aquatic environments?
Dissolved oxygen concentrations deriving from atmospheric oxygen are influenced by water temperatures. When dissolved oxygen levels fall below 3 ppm many consumers, such as fish and zooplankton, will die. This makes dissolved oxygen and water temperature very important limiting factors in aquatic life zones.