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Tropical Salt Pond Ecosystem
Salt ponds are a natural feature of both temperate and tropical coastlines. These ponds form a vital buffer zone between terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Contaminants such as sediment, nitrates and phosphates are filtered out by salt ponds before they can reach the ocean. The depth, salinity and overall chemistry of these dynamic salt ponds fluctuate depending on temperature, rainfall, and anthropogenic influences such as nutrient runoff. The flora and fauna of tropical salt ponds differ markedly from those of temperate ponds. Mangrove trees are the dominant vegetation of tropical salt pond ecosystems, which also serve as vital feeding and breeding grounds for shore birds. Formation and cycle Tropical salt ponds form as bays are gradually closed off with berms of rubble from the reef. Mangroves grow atop the berms, which gradually close off the area to create a salt pond.Jarecki, L. 1999. A review of salt pond ecosystems. In Proceedings of the Nonpoint Source Pollution Sym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perseverance Bay Salt Pond St Thomas USVI
Perseverance may refer to: Behaviour * Psychological resilience * Perseverance of the saints, a Protestant Christian teaching * Assurance (theology) Geography * Perseverance, Queensland, a locality in Australia * Perseverance Island, Seychelles * Perseverance Mountain, Canada * De Volharding, Jislum (), a wind mill in the Netherlands * Perseverance Tavern, a pub in Cape Town, South Africa * The Perseverance, a pub in London, England * Perseverance School, a Christian institution in South Africa Music * Perseverance (Hatebreed album), ''Perseverance'' (Hatebreed album) * Perseverance (Percee P album), ''Perseverance'' (Percee P album) * Perseverance (song), "Perseverance" (song), on Terrorvision's 1996 album ''Regular Urban Survivors'' * Perseverance Records, an American record label Vehicles * Perseverance (rover), ''Perseverance'' (rover), a planetary rover landed on Mars by NASA * Perseverance (ship), ''Perseverance'' (ship), various watercraft so named * Perseverance (Rainhill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladocera
The Diplostraca or Cladocera, commonly known as water fleas, are a superorder of small crustaceans that feed on microscopic chunks of organic matter (excluding some predatory forms). Over 1000 species have been recognised so far, with many more undescribed. The oldest fossils of diplostracans date to the Jurassic, though their modern morphology suggests that they originated substantially earlier, during the Paleozoic. Some have also adapted to a life in the ocean, the only members of Branchiopoda to do so, even if several anostracans live in hypersaline lakes. Most are long, with a down-turned head with a single median compound eye, and a carapace covering the apparently unsegmented thorax and abdomen. Most species show cyclical parthenogenesis, where asexual reproduction is occasionally supplemented by sexual reproduction, which produces resting eggs that allow the species to survive harsh conditions and disperse to distant habitats. Description They are mostly long, with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anas Bahamensis
The white-cheeked pintail (''Anas bahamensis''), also known as the Bahama pintail or summer duck, is a species of dabbling duck. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' under its current scientific name. Distribution and habitat It is found in the Caribbean, South America, and the Galápagos Islands. It occurs on waters with some salinity, such as brackish lakes, estuaries and mangrove swamps. There are three subspecies: * ''A. b. bahamensis''—lesser Bahama pintail—in the Caribbean, and a vagrant to southern Florida * ''A. b. rubirostris''—greater Bahama pintail—in South America; it may be partly migratory, breeding in Argentina and wintering further north. * ''A. b. galapagensis''—Galápagos pintail—in the Galápagos Islands Description Like many southern ducks, the sexes are similar. It is mainly brown with white cheeks and a red-based grey bill (young birds lack the pink). It cannot be confused with any ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charadrius Wilsonia
Wilson's plover (''Charadrius wilsonia'') is a small bird of the family Charadriidae. It was named after the Scottish-American ornithologist Alexander Wilson (ornithologist), Alexander Wilson by his friend George Ord in 1814. Wilson's plover is a coastal wader which breeds on both coasts of the Americas from the equator northwards. Its range extends north to include much of the United States, U.S. eastern seaboard, and the Pacific coast of Mexico on the west. Range and habitat It is a partial bird migration, migrant. Birds leave the United States, except Florida, to winter south in Brazil. Some Mexican birds leave in winter for Peru. Furthermore, a small Resident bird, resident population is known from Brazil, it being named as a new subspecies, ''brasiliensis'', in 2008. In 2012 it was established that this is a junior synonym, and the correct name for the subspecies is ''crassirostris''. This also means that one of the subspecies of the greater sand plover had to be renamed. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Himantopus Mexicanus
The black-necked stilt (''Himantopus mexicanus'') is a locally abundant shorebird of American wetlands and coastlines. It is found from the coastal areas of California through much of the interior western United States and along the Gulf of Mexico as far east as Florida, then south through Central America and the Caribbean to Brazil, Peru and the Galápagos Islands, with an isolated population, the Hawaiian stilt, in Hawaii. The northernmost populations, particularly those from inland, are migratory, wintering from the extreme south of the United States to southern Mexico, rarely as far south as Costa Rica; on the Baja California peninsula it is only found regularly in winter. Some authorities, including the IUCN, treat it as a subspecies of ''Himantopus himantopus''. Taxonomy It is often treated as a subspecies of the common or black-winged stilt, using the trinomial name ''Himantopus himantopus mexicanus''. However, the AOS has always considered it a species in its own right, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tringa
''Tringa'' is a genus of waders, containing the shanks and tattlers. The genus name ''Tringa'' is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by the Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1599. They are mainly freshwater birds, often with brightly coloured legs as reflected in the English names of six species, as well as the specific names of two of these and the green sandpiper. They are typically associated with northern hemisphere temperate regions for breeding. Some of this group—notably the green sandpiper—nest in trees, using the old nests of other birds, usually thrushes. The willet and the tattlers have been found to belong in ''Tringa''; these genus changes were formally adopted by the American Ornithologists' Union in 2006. The present genus in the old, more limited sense was even further subdivided into ''Tringa'' proper and ''Totanus'', either as subgenera or as full genera. The available DNA sequence data suggests however that neither of these is monophyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birds
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the bee hummingbird to the ostrich. There are about ten thousand living species, more than half of which are passerine, or "perching" birds. Birds have whose development varies according to species; the only known groups without wings are the extinct moa and elephant birds. Wings, which are modified forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in some birds, including ratites, penguins, and diverse endemic island species. The digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming. B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fish
Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of living fish species are ray-finned fish, belonging to the class Actinopterygii, with around 99% of those being teleosts. The earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts. Fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators. The first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many (such as sharks) became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corixidae
Corixidae is a family of aquatic insects in the order Hemiptera. They are found worldwide in virtually any freshwater habitat and a few species live in saline water. There are about 500 known species worldwide, in 55 genera, including the genus '' Sigara''. Members of the Corixidae are commonly known as water boatmen, a term that is sometimes used in the United Kingdom for ''Notonecta glauca'', an insect of a different family, Notonectidae. ''Corixa punctata'' is the "lesser water boatman". Morphology and ecology Corixidae generally have a long flattened body ranging from long. Many have extremely fine dark brown or black striations marking the wings. They tend to have four long rear legs and two short front ones. The forelegs are covered with hairs and shaped like oars, hence the name "water boatman". Their four hindmost legs have scoop- or oar-shaped tarsi to aid swimming. They also have a triangular head with short, triangular mouthparts. Corixidae dwell in slow rivers and p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ephydridae
Ephydridae (shore fly, sometimes brine fly) is a family of insects in the order Diptera. Shore flies are tiny flies that can be found near seashores or at smaller inland waters, such as ponds. About 2,000 species have been described worldwide, including Ochthera. The petroleum fly, ''Helaeomyia petrolei'', is the only known insect whose larvae live in naturally occurring crude petroleum. Another notable species is '' Ephydra hians'' which lives in vast number at Mono Lake. Description For terms, see Morphology of Diptera. The flies are minute to small (0.9 to 7.0 mm), with black or gray colorations. Wings are sometimes patterned. Costa with two interruptions are present in first section, near the humeral cross-vein and again near the end of vein 1. The second basal cell is not separated from the discal cell. Arista are bare or with hairs on the upper side (plumose on the upper side). The mouth opening is very large in some species. The ratio of vertical diameter of eye ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Insecta
Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. Their blood is not totally contained in vessels; some circulates in an open cavity known as the haemocoel. Insects are the most diverse group of animals; they include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms. The total number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million; In: potentially over 90% of the animal life forms on Earth are insects. Insects may be found in nearly all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans, which are dominated by another arthropod group, crustaceans, which recent research has indicated insects are nested within. Nearly all insects hatch from eggs. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decapoda
The Decapoda or decapods (literally "ten-footed") are an order of crustaceans within the class Malacostraca, including many familiar groups, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp and prawns. Most decapods are scavengers. The order is estimated to contain nearly 15,000 species in around 2,700 genera, with around 3,300 fossil species. Nearly half of these species are crabs, with the shrimp (about 3,000 species) and Anomura including hermit crabs, porcelain crabs, squat lobsters (about 2500 species) making up the bulk of the remainder. The earliest fossil decapod is the Devonian ''Palaeopalaemon''. Anatomy Decapods can have as many as 38 appendages, arranged in one pair per body segment. As the name Decapoda (from the Greek , ', "ten", and , '' -pod'', "foot") implies, ten of these appendages are considered legs. They are the pereiopods, found on the last five thoracic segments. In many decapods, one pair of these "legs" has enlarged pincers, called chelae, with the legs be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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