Animals/ Contents

Freshwater ecosystems

Mohd Zakaria-Ismail

Fresh water is essential to the maintenance of both aquatic and terrestrial life, including man, although only about 1 per cent of water on the earth is fresh water. It differs from sea water in its salinity value, which is the number of grams of salts of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, sulphide, carbonate and bromide dissolved in 1 kilogram of water. Freshwater ecosystems are divided into two systems, lentic (still water) and lotic (running water).

  • Information in the full article includes
  • Lentic ecosystems
  • Lotic ecosystems
Kingfisher

A common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis), which relies on the freshwater ecosystem for its fish catch.