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We
all are aware of this natural fact that fresh groundwater and surface water
eventually meet and mix with salty marine waters in estuaries. Like many other
zones in which one habitat merges into another, estuaries are typically highly
biologically productive, with a greater diversity of animal and plant species
than the fully freshwater or fully marine zones on either side. The ecological
structure of estuaries is exquisitely variable, reflecting the shifting
patterns of water depth, current strength and salinity.
Many
estuaries host extensive colonies of worms and molluscs, such as oysters and
mussels. As filter-feeders that strain their nutrients from passing water, these
molluscs require access to fairly fast-flowing currents.
In
the shallower subtidal areas with weak currents, where sunlight still
penetrates to the benthos, submarine meadows tend to develop, comprising thick
stands of sea-grasses . The stems of these plants tend to filter fine sediment
from the water column; where these sediments settle, they are grazed by
detritus feeders, which include a wide range of worms, sea snails and crabs. As
the submarine meadows are traced up into the intertidal zone, they pass into
intertidal salt marshes (in temperate zones) or (in the tropics) into mangrove
swamps.
Leaving
the estuaries the estuaries behind, it is estimated that about three-quarters
of all life on Earth is to be found in the open oceans. This is not especially
surprising when we recall that oceans comprise 99 per cent of all living space
on the planet. To date , humans have directly explored less than 10 per cent of
that space; most of the unexplored volume is far below the depth of sunlight
penetration, in the cold and dark depths of the ocean, averaging about 3.7
kilometres deep and exceeding 11 kilometres in places. So far, scientists have
documented nearly 200,000 marine species, but this is believed to be a small
fraction of the total number that exists.
It
is easy to be seduced by these numbers into imagining a marine paradise,
untouched by humans. Sadly, this is far from the case. With the exceptions of
some unusual microbes and tubeworms that thrive around hydrothermal events on
the sea floor, most of the life in the cool, dark depths of the sea is
dependent on the nutrients that ‘rain down’ from the photosynthetic zone above.
And this zone is being ravaged by humankind, as we pollute the waters and
remove the fish at unsustainable rates. As we drastically diminish biological
activity in the zone of light penetration, we are surely wreaking untold havoc
on life in the deeps, where the supply of cascading nutrients was always in
rather delicate balance.
Thankfully,
you won’t be held responsible for creating this havoc because you are a
responsible citizen of the UK and hence have chosen the most eco-friendly and
responsible water supplier - Northumbrian Water- as your water supplier. In
case you have any queries or concerns regarding your water supply, please feel
free to contact them at Northumbrian
Water Contact Number.
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