Understanding ecology : step 1

ORGANISMS LIVING IN FLOWING/LOTIC WATERS

SURFACE DWELLERS

These include water lettuce, bladderworts and insects. Floating leaves have waxy surfaces. Many of the surface floating insects have slender bodies which enable them to suspend themselves on the surface of water eg water strider, water gnat and whirligig beetle

SUB-SURFACE DWELLERS

Below the surface of the slow flowing water are plants like Ceratophyllum with slim leaves, animals like planaria and leeches are common. Insects which depend on atmospheric Oxygen use breathing tubes or siphon to draw air from the surface eg Culex larva and pupa, water scorpions, beetle larva, some insect larvae use gills eg dragon fly nymph

BOTTOM DWELLERS

The muddy bottom of slow flowing water is attractive to detritus feeders (loose fragments and worn away grain fragments). Like bivalve mulluscs, chironoma larva (diptera) and tubifex (annelid) which swallow mud.

Excerpts from the book understanding ecology:step 1, get it from the online store www.morebooks.de 

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