Life+in+the+Water

Life in the Water Kali N, Sarah M, Daniel H

Life in the water is about animals and species living in the water. There are 230 000 species of just fish living in the water, and about a million different types of plants and a lot yet to be discovered. media type="custom" key="18594708" align="left"Pelagic organisms include plankton, which float along with currents, and nekton, which are active swimmers. Plankton are divided into phytoplankton, which include photosynthesizing species such as algae, and zoo-plankton, which are consumer species. Zooplankton consist largely of copepods (tiny crustaceans). Organisms that are planktonic throughout their life cycles are known as holoplankton. Organisms that are only planktonic during the early parts of their life cycles are called meroplankton. Meroplankton include the larval or juvenile forms of many species of fish and mollusks . These species use the planktonic stage to disperse to new areas. Although most planktonic species are small, some are large, such as kelp and jellyfish.  Fun facts about fish: 1) Fish have been on Earth for 450 million years!! 2) There are 25,000 identified fish species !! 3) There are approximentally 15,000 fish that havent been identified yet!! 4)There are more species of fish then there is of anything else! 5)Some fish can glide /fly, while others can skip along the water! 6)The largest fish is a white shark which can reach 50 feet!! 7)The smallest fish is a Philippine goby which is less the 1/3 of an inch full grown!! 8)Fish are colored blind!! Nekton are active swimmers that use diverse means to propel themselves through the water. Some species swim using fins, tails, or flippers. Other species, such as mussels, move by shooting out jets of water, known as jet propulsion. Nektonic species include fish, octopus, sea turtles, whales, seals, penguins, and many others. Many nektonic species eat high in the food chain, although there are plankton-eating species (e.g., some fish) and herbivorous species (e.g., sea turtles) in addition to carnivorous ones (e.g., seals and killer whales). Pelagic marine species may also be categorized according to the depths at which they occur. Different water depths are characterized by differences in temperature, amount of sunlight received, and availability of nutrients. The epipelagic zone describes oceanic waters closest to the surface, and is the zone richest in marine life. In the epipelagic zone, there is enough sunlight for photosynthisis. For that reason, the epipelagic zone is also called the photic (light) zone. All photosynthetic species, including the phytoplankton, live in this zone, as do many of the species that feed on phytoplankton.

 