With only 2.5% of the Earth''s water, freshwater ecosystems provide essential services like water purification and flood mitigation. They are home to endangered species and play a vital role in the water cycle, making their preservation crucial for the planet''s health.
Surface water: Lakes, rivers, and streams that collect and store rainwater. Glaciers: Huge masses of ice that hold significant amounts of freshwater. Melting snow: As temperatures rise, snow melts and contributes to freshwater availability.
The freshwater biome is the community of plants and animals found in freshwater habitats throughout the world. Freshwater habitats include streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, and bogs. These habitats are essential for life on Earth, providing not just drinking water but also a home to countless animals and plants.
Most freshwater is in ice. Just 3.5 percent of Earth''s water is fresh—that is, with few salts in it. You can find Earth''s freshwater in our lakes, rivers, and streams, but don''t forget groundwater and glaciers.
Freshwater biodiversity refers to the variety of life found in freshwater ecosystems
Freshwater habitats such as rivers, lakes and wetlands are extremely important for life on Earth. They provide a home for countless animal and plant species and supply us with water and food. This page contains freshwater biome facts together with information on the main freshwater habitats...
Freshwater habitats include streams, rivers, lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, and bogs. These habitats are essential for life on Earth, providing not just drinking water but also a home to countless animals and plants.
All of the above animals are found in freshwater habitats. (Clockwise from top-left: American alligator, rainbow trout, bullfrog, river otter)
Although present on every continent apart from Antarctica, freshwater habitats make up less than 1% of the world''s total surface area. Despite this, freshwater habitats are home to 10% of all known animals, including up to 40% of all known fish species.
In total, over 100,000 species of plant and animals live in freshwater habitats.
Freshwater makes up just 3% of the water on earth, of which two-thirds is frozen in glaciers or otherwise unavailable. In fact, just 0.014% of all Earth''s water is freshwater in the form of rivers, lakes and swamps. (Source: USGS)
The freshwater biome is highly biodiverse. Animals such as worms, mollusks, crayfish, and insect larvae burrow into the mud found at the bottom of lakes and creeks. Aquatic vegetation provides a home to amphibians and aquatic insects (apart from a small number of possible exceptions, all amphibians are reliant on freshwater).
The round-leaved sundew, Drosera rotundifolia, is a carnivorous plant found in freshwater wetland habitats.
Larger animals, including birds, mammals and reptiles, live in the vegetation that borders expanses of freshwater. Fish are present in many freshwater ecosystems. Wetlands such as swamps and marshes are home to an array of specialized plants.
Freshwater can be defined as being water with a low salt content, or salinity. A common definition of freshwater is water whose dissolved salt content is less than 0.5 parts per thousand (0.05%).
By comparison, seawater has an average salt content of 34.7 ppt, or 3.47%.
The water in freshwater habitats is supplied by the precipitation (rain, hail, or snow) of evaporated seawater, or from melted snow and ice from high ground.
Freshwater habitats include rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, and wetlands such as marshes, swamps and bogs.
A river flows through the taiga of Sweden.
Some of the best-known habitats of the freshwater biome are rivers and streams.
Rivers and streams are flowing, or lotic, freshwater ecosystems, whereas lakes and ponds are still water, or lentic ecosystems.
Rivers and streams come in all different shapes and sizes, varying not only in length but also in depth, width, rate of flow, and volume of water carried. These characteristics are largely determined by the geography of the area, including the shape of the land and the type of rock over which the river flows.
Rivers and streams are formed either by a spring (groundwater emerging from under the ground) or by melting snow and ice.
This flowing water forms small creeks and streams, which join with other watercourses to form larger rivers.
The River Nile, which is in Africa, is generally considered to be the world''s longest river. It is 4,132 miles (6,650 km) in length. However, by some measurements, South America''s Amazon River is considered the world''s longest river.
The Roe River, in Montana, US is recognized as the world''s shortest river. It measures only 201 feet (61 m) in length.
Most of the water flowing in rivers and streams comes from the surrounding land, after originally falling as precipitation. The area whose water drains into a river is known as a catchment area, or watershed.
Not all rainwater ends up in rivers and streams. Some water evaporates and some of it soaks into the ground to recharge groundwater aquifers (layers of water-containing rock).
Some of the water from these groundwater aquifers will also eventually end up being a part of a river or stream. At a certain depth below the earth''s surface, the ground becomes saturated with water; this point is known as the water table. If a riverbank cuts into this saturated ground, as most rivers do, then the water will seep out of the ground into the river.
About 10 facts about freshwater
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