Welcome to Ecosystem Guide
Open Ocean Ecosystem Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
A pond ecosystem reflects the health of its surrounding landscape.
from:The pond ecosystem is a fresh water environment that can reveal the health of a local area. Fresh water environments such as the pond ecosystem have specific life forms that show its overall health. Toxins or pollution can effect the pond ecosystem adversely. The importance of understanding the pond ecosystem involves the life forms and plant cultures that are part of the healthy environment.
The pond ecosystem begins with what lives in the water. From the smallest microbes, single cell creatures to the guppies, leeches and midges, only clean water can sustain life. The plants that convert oxygen for these creatures are as important as the fauna. The healthy pond ecosystem will have a balance of both plant and animal living with in its parameters. Studying the balance between plant and animal and soil, sedges and underlying strata can give an overall view of the quality of the water table and land. With human activity impacting on the pond environment, toxins can effect the quality of the pond ecosystem. If toxins effect the water, plants can die. Without plants to add oxygen to the water, the creatures might perish. Without the smallest life forms in the food chain, the ripple effect can lead to other species dying out or leaving the pond environment.
Leeches have long been an indicator of the pond ecosystem’s health status. Leeches are found where water quality is good. If the pond ecosystem is not balanced, or there are impurities in the water that the life forms cannot deal with , then one of the first to suffer or leave the environs, is the humble leech.
Birds, spiders, lizards, rodents, rabbits and larger mammals are all reliant on a healthy pond ecosystem. Without clear clean water, filtered by ample plant life or good drainable soil, the larger animals will need to find other sources of water.
Agriculture and the impact of human activity on the pond ecosystem can effect the quality and purity of soil and water. Fertilizer, oil, introduced species, pollution, fishing can all upset the delicate balance that exists in a healthy pond ecosystem.
Maintaining the balance, keeping every species alive and in good numbers will ensure a healthy, vital pond ecosystem. Fresh water, climate, drought, humidity, rising salinity are all important factors that can effect the pond ecosystem beyond the initial impact of human activity.
The food chain, from tiny water borne creatures that feed midges and insects that feed birds, to the rabbits that feed foxes and the grasses that feed cattle and sheep, all depend on the pond ecosystem to sustain their lives. Water is essential to life on this planet. Fresh water and the quality of fresh water in the pond ecosystem is actually of global importance.
Open Ocean Ecosystem Specific links
Open Ocean Ecosystem News
Lies You've Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch - io9
Lies You've Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch io9 The problem with the plastisphere is that it's radically changing the balance of a sea ecosystem that was once mostly just open ocean creatures. "One thing that people worry about is that hard surfaces can transport invasive species," Goldstein said. |
Why Shell is betting billions to drill for oil in Alaska - Fortune (blog)
 Fortune (blog) | Why Shell is betting billions to drill for oil in Alaska Fortune (blog) And the admirals want to ensure that a drilling accident doesn't happen in an ocean ecosystem that environmentalists consider to be one of the most unspoiled on the planet. Alaska's outer-continental shelf has been off limits to oil companies ... |
How a humongous garbage patch in the Pacific breeds new bugs (+video) - Christian Science Monitor
 Christian Science Monitor | How a humongous garbage patch in the Pacific breeds new bugs (+video) Christian Science Monitor The great Pacific garbage patch is giving sea striders a place to breed out on the open ocean, changing the natural environment there, new research suggests. The average American throws away three and a half pounds of trash each day. Great Pacific Garbage Patch Leads To Boom In Ocean Bugs |
Ex-astronaut to Alaska: NOAA here to help - The Durango Herald
Ex-astronaut to Alaska: NOAA here to help The Durango Herald Still icebound for most of the year, the Arctic Ocean is seeing open water sooner and longer. The average September sea ice extent from 1979 to 2000 was 2.7 million square miles, but it has fallen to as few as 1.65 million square miles, a record set in ... |
Plastic pollution in open ocean has unexpected effects - FIS
 RedOrbit | Plastic pollution in open ocean has unexpected effects FIS A study by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has found there has been a 100-fold upsurge in human-produced plastic garbage in the ocean in the last 40 years, which is disrupting habitats in the ecosystem. Ocean Trash Is a Lifesaver for Insect Study: Plastic Garbage In Pacific Ocean Has Increased 100-Fold In 40 Years Pacific Ocean 'Garbage Patch' Increasing At Alarming Rate |