Freshwater habitats include both standing (lentic) Lakeand flowing (lotic) waters. Lakes, rivers, streams, ponds, wetlands, bogs and marshes are all freshwater habitats amounting to less than half of Earth’s water. The diversity of freshwater habitats and niches available in an area affects the diversity of organisms present in that ecosystem. To find more out about freshwater habitats, go to our Habitats section of FreshwaterLife.

 

 

Freshwaters contain over 12% of the worlds known animals and supports a huge web of species.The smallest size of life in freshwater such as plankton, bacteria and viruses, form an important part of the aquatic food web. Larger microscopic animals known as zooplankton feed on the smaller organisms, which in turn are eaten by even larger animals such as invertebrates and fish. Aquatic mammals (such as otters and beavers) and many species of bird (geese and herons) rely on fish for their food.

The diversity of life in freshwater is huge and many freshwater organisms may have several different life stages, contributing towards different areas of the food web. To find out more about organisms found in freshwater, go to our ‘Species’ pages. If you have found on organism and would like to try and identify it, why not have a look through our online identification keys: 'Fish parasite key', 'Fish key' or 'British river plants identification guide'.