Question

The example of “Lentic Habitat” in fresh water community is-
1. Ponds and Swamps
2. Waterfalls and Rivers
3. Ponds and River
4. All of the above

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Ponds and Swamps

The correct answer is Ponds and Swamps.

• Lentic Habitat:
  • A lentic ecosystem entails a body of standing water, ranging from ditches, seeps, ponds, seasonal pools, basin marshes and lakes.
  • Deeper waters, such as lakes, may have layers of ecosystems, influenced by light.
  • Ponds, due to their having more light penetration, are able to support a diverse range of water plants.
  • The term lentic (from the Latin lentus, meaning slow or motionless), refers to standing waters such as lakes and ponds (lacustrine), or swamps and marshes (paludal).
  • Lotic (from the Latin lotus, meaning washing), refers to running water (fluvial or fluviatile) habitats such as rivers and streams.

• Inland aquatic systems are generally categorized as being either lentic or lotic habitats.
• Most of these are freshwater environments, although, depending on local climatic and geologic conditions, a wide range of salinities may exist, including brackish conditions characteristic of the Caspian and Aral Seas and the hypersalinity of the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Dead Sea.
• These ecotopes may be perennial or ephemeral, the latter being associated mainly with strongly seasonal climates such as in the savanna belts (roughly 8 to 18° N and S), or with exceptionally porous subsoils, or with karst terrains.
• The study of freshwater habitats is known as limnology.
• Freshwater habitats can be further divided into two groups as lentic and lotic ecosystems based on the difference in the water residence time and the flow velocity.
• The water residence time in a lentic ecosystem on average is 10 years and that of the lotic ecosystem is 2 weeks.
• In a lotic ecosystem, the average flow velocity ranges from 0.1 to 1 m/s whereas lentic ecosystems are characterized by an average flow velocity of 0.001 to 0.01 m/s.
• The lentic habitats further differentiate from lotic habitats by having a thermal stratification with is created in a lake due to differences in densities.