User:Mr. Jotatohead/Freshwater biology

Freshwater biology is the scientific biological study of freshwater ecosystems and is a branch of limnology. This field seeks to understand the relationships between living organisms in their physical environment. These physical environments may include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or wetlands. Knowledge from this discipline is also widely used in industrial processes to make use of biological processes involved with sewage treatment and water purification. Water presence and flow is an essential aspect to species distribution and influence when and where species interact in freshwater environments.

In the UK the Freshwater Biological Association based near Windermere in Cumbria was one of the early institutions to research the biology of freshwater and promote the concepts of trophism in lakes and demonstrated the process of migration from oligotrophic water through mesotrophic to marsh.

Freshwater biology is also used to study the effects of climate change and increased human impact on both aquatic systems and wider ecosystems. Topics


 * What is freshwater biology?
 * Freshwater
 * Biology

Applications of Freshwater Biology
Freshwater biology is a multifaceted discipline that examines the relationships between organisms and their environment within freshwater ecosystems. There are many factors to take into consideration. Freshwater organisms experience negative impacts from human activities, such as emerging contaminants, nutrient pollution, non-native species introductions, and flow modifications. When applying freshwater biology to management practices, conservation and/or preservation, it is important to examine the interactions from the biotic and abiotic components within the system. An example of a freshwater biology application to management would be examining the overall abundance of freshwater fish, such as perch (Perca fluviatilis), over a set of parameters such as time, different sampling sites within a defined area. Differences in abundance can effect predator-prey and other food web dynamics over time. Food webs are critical to overall health of freshwater system and are another parameter within the freshwater biology field. Freshwater biology is not just for examining plants and animals. It is also useful in diagnosing irregularities in water health, public health, and human health. Bacteria, such as E.coli, found in these freshwater systems can be tested for, monitored, and controlled. One application of freshwater biology is to aid in fisheries population restoration. This can be accomplished through population management techniques that include captive breeding, species introductions, and species removal. This can be accomplished through several means:


 * Captive breeding
 * Species Introduction and/or removal

Captive Breeding
The world has seen a rapid decline of many organisms due to habitat loss and fragmentation, natural disasters and climate shifts , invasive species competition. In order to aid these organisms, a technique called captive breeding is used to propagate the organisms with the goal of reintroduction into their natural habitats. Sometimes it takes and is successful, as seen in a study in the Western Ghat rivers of peninsular India. The study worked with an endemic catfish species Horabagrus brachysoma, or golden catfish, and saw rapid and effective results with the species making an astounding recovery. This is not always the case however. A similar attempt at captive breeding took place Hood River in Oregon, USA. The study found that the captive steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), a species of rainbow trout, when reintroduced for breeding, known as broodstock or broodfish, had much lower genetic input for the species as a whole, possibly linked to the difference of juvenile habitats. Regardless of the reason, captive breeding challenges with steelhead trout was primarily a genetic issue, as opposed to environmental stressors. What was found was that captive fish were losing about 37.5% of fitness capability per generations of captive fish, meaning that if a captive fish breed and their offspring were to be captured and then reintroduced, it would have a 65% chance of having the ability to, or opportunity, to mate. Genetics, a field of biology, is just one of the major sciences being deployed to assist freshwater systems and the organisms that inhabit them. Other biological tools used to aid in fisheries population restoration are studies of population dynamics, including carrying capacity, and managing nutrients and other limiting resources using frameworks like Liebig's law of the minimum.

Related topics

 * Freshwater Ecosystem
 * Freshwater ecosystems are critical for every terrestrial organism, including a wide array of species both plant and animal, providing habitats, nutrients, and of course life sustaining water.
 * Stream Ecology
 * Freshwater Animals/Aquatic Organisms
 * Freshwater Fish
 * Megafauna: these organisms are crucial to the overall health of freshwater systems.
 * Reptiles and amphibians (Herptiles)
 * River Ecosystem
 * Limnology
 * Marine Biology
 * Pond Life