BIOSPHERE

Terrestrial Biomes
Each major type of terrestrial ecosystem contains a characteristic community of populations
called a biome. The various biomes are somewhat artificially imposed upon the biosphere.
Actually, one type of biome gradually becomes another type, and it is not surprising to find within
any particular biome a region that does not fit the general description.
Physical conditions, particularly climate, determine the biome of an area. Figure 1 shows
that the various biomes can be related to temperature and rainfall. Deserts are biomes with the least
amount of rainfall.
Deserts
Deserts are regions of aridity with less than 20 centimeters of rainfall a year. True deserts,
with less than 2 centimeters annually, are infrequent, the Sahara in Africa being the largest.
Semideserts, however, include about one-third of all land areas. In deserts, the days are hot because
lack of cloud cover allows the sun's rays to penetrate easily, but the nights are-often cold because
heat escapes into the atmosphere.
Perennial flowers, including the succulent cacti, non-succulent shrubs, such as sagebrush,
and stunted trees are common North American desert vegetation.) Reptiles, exemplified by lizards
and turtles; rodents, such as the kangaroo and pack rat; and birds, like woodpeckers, hawks, prairie
falcons, and the roadrunner, are common small desert animals. The camel is a large herbivorous
animal of African deserts, with a reservoir of fat in its hump that allows it to drink and eat
infrequently. Large carnivorous animals of the United States desert are the badger, kit fox, and
bobcat.
Terrestrial Biomes

Fig. 1. Influence of temperature and rainfall on type of biome. Temperature and rainfall determine
the biome to a large extent. Deserts occur in regions with minimal rainfall but as the diagram
indicates, there are hot deserts and cold deserts. Grasslands occur in regions where there is
insufficient water to support trees. The tundra is classified as a grassland.

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Deserts

Fig. 2. Zones of vegetation change with altitude just as they do with latitude because
vegetation is partially determined by temperature. Rainfall also determined
vegetation, which is why grasslands are found at the base of some mountains
instead of a forest as shown here.
Plants and animals adapted to the desert have structural and/or behavioral adaptations the allow
them to prevent evaporation and withstand heat. Plants, and even some animals, reproduce only
when adequate water is available. Like the camel, animals often make use of metabolic water. Both
desert plants and animals have protective coverings, but animals also hide beneath rocks or burrow
in the earth or venture forth only at night to escape the heat of the sun.

Desertification
Thirty-six percent of the biosphere is expected to be a desert on the basis of annual rainfall.
Yet a world survey indicates that 43 percent of the land is actually desert-like. The difference of 7
percent probably represents the extent of desertification caused by human misuse of the land. The
true deserts are expanding into the area of semideserts, and the semideserts are expanding into the
grasslands. Altogether, a collective area the size of Brazil has undergone reduced productivity. In
heavily populated countries, such as Africa and India, true deserts are increasing in size because
people living in semiarid areas cut down trees for firewood and allow cattle to graze on the shrubs
until the entire area lacks ground cover. In the past 55 years, at least 251,000 square miles of
farmland and grazing land have been swallowed up by the Sahara along its southern fringe.
In the midwestern and southwestern regions of this country, overgrazing of grasslands has
caused them to become semideserts. Also, water has been diverted from the countryside to the
cities so that irrigation of once fertile farmland is no longer possible. This land has become as a
desert.

Grassland

Grasslands occur where rainfall is greater than 20 centimetres but is generally insufficient to
support trees. The extensive root system of grasses allows them to recover quickly from drought,

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cold, fire, and grazing. Furthermore, these matted roots, which absorb surface water efficiently,
prevent invasion by trees.
Grasslands, which occur on all continents are known by various names.

Arctic tundra

The northernmost biome is dark most of the year but has 24-hour day in the summer. Since
precipitation is only about 20 centimeters a year, it could possibly be considered a desert, but water
frozen in the winter is plentiful in the summer because so little of it has evaporated. Only the
topmost layer of the earth thaws and beneath this the permafrost is forever frozen. Trees are not
found in the tundra because their roots cannot penetrate the permafrost and cannot become
anchored in the constantly shifting soil. While the ground is covered with shortgrasses and
flowering frobs during the summer months, dwarf woody shrubs and frequent patches of lichens
and mosses are always present. A few small animals for example, the arctic fox, the snowshoe hare,
and the lemming, which resembles a mouses-live in the tundra the year round. Many migratory
birds arrive for the summer, the arctic tern being the most famous of these. At one time, before its
virtual extermination by human hunters, the musk-ox was a plentiful year-round resident. Now only
the large caribou and reindeer migrate to the tundra in the summer and the wolves follow to prey
upon them. Polar bears are common near the coast.

Plants and animals living in the tundra have adaptations that allow them to survive the
extreme cold. Low-lying plants are typical because it is warmer near the ground. They have
extremely short life cycles, being able to grow and flower within the short summer. In the winter,
smaller animals, like the lemmings, burrow, while the large musk-ox has a thick coat and a short,
squat body that conserves heat.

The tundra has been the least altered of all the biomes because of its unfavourable climate
and soil conditions. However, this biome contains reservoirs of minerals and fossil fuels that only
now have become profitable and therefore technologically possible to remove. There is concern
that the ecology of the tundra will be disturbed by such factors as the Alaskan pipeline and that the
area may now suffer damaging pollution as a result.

Savanna

The African savanna is a topical grassland that contains both trees and grasses and therefore
supports populations of browsers and grazers. The temperature is warm and there is adequate
yearly rainfall, but a severe dry season limits the number of different types of plants. Perhaps the
best known of the trees are the flat-topped acacia trees, which shed their leaves during a drought
and remain small due to the limited water supply during the dry season. The large, always warm
African savanna supports the greatest number of different types of large herbivores of all the
biomes. Elephants and giraffes are browsers.Antelopes, zebras, water buffalo, and rhinoceros are
grazers. These are preyed upon by cheetas and lions. The remains of these dead animals is eaten by
hyenas and vultures. The savanna has been reduced in the size due to human encroachment, but
those parts that remain, although often misused, have largely retained their usual characteristics.

"Conservation by utilization", which means that the native animals are domesticated for dairy and
meat products, is favoured by far-sighted promoters, especially since imported European cattle are
susceptible to tsetse fly infection, a constant threat in many parts of Africa.

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Prairies

As one travels from east to west across the United States, a tallgrass prairie gradually gives way to
a shortgrass prairie. Although grasses dominate, they are interspersed by flowering forbs.

The lack of trees places a restriction on the variety of animal life.) Insects abound,especially
grasshoppers, crickets, leafhoppers, and spiders. Songbirds and prairie chickens sometimes feed off
these, but usually they prefer seeds, berries, and fruits. Small mammals, such as mice, prairie dogs,
and rabbits, typically burrow in the ground but usually feed above ground. Hawks, snakes, badgers,
coyotes, and kit foxes capture and feed off these. The largest of the herbivores, the buffalo and
pronghorn antelope, had few enemies until humans killed them off. Before then large herds of
buffalo, in the hundreds of thousands, roamed the prairies and plains, never overgrazing the
bountiful vegetation. The grazers and their predators are specialized for locomotion in all the
grasslands. The same adaptations for leaping, burrowing, and running are seen in North American
animals as well as African animals. This is an example of convergent evolution-the animals of
similar biomes resemble one another because they are suited to the same environment. Only
remnants of the original grasslands remain, and much is now used for farming or for rangeland and
pasture. At times, drier areas have undergone desertification.

Forests

Table 1. Forest biomes

Biome Plants
Coniferous forest Cone-bearing evergreen trees such as pine
and spruce No understory.

Temperate deciduous forest Broad-leaved trees, such as oak and maple

Understories.
Tropical rain forest Broad-leaved evergreen trees
Multilevel canopy
No understory.
Tropical seasonal forest Mixed broad-leaved evergreen and deciduous, Rich
understories produce jungle.

The three types of forests discussed here are contrasted in table (1). Generally

speaking, the evergreen coniferous trees are well adapted to the cold because both the

leaves and bark have thick coverings. Also, the needlelike leaves can withstand the

weight of heavy snow. The broad leaves of deciduous trees carry on a maximum amount

of photosynthesis during the short growing season of the temperate zone. Loss of these
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leaves and dormancy during the winter protect the trees from the danger of cold weather

and heavy snow. Trees living in the moist, warm environment of the tropics are both

broad-leaved and evergreen because continuous growth is possible and there is no need

for dormancy.

Coniferous forest

Coniferous forests are found in three locations: in the taiga, which extends around

the world in the northern part of North America and Eurasia; near mountain tops; and

surprisingly enough, along the Pacific coast of North America, as far south as northern

California.

The taiga typifies the coniferous forest with its cone-bearing tress, such as pine,

fir, and spruce. There is no understory of plants, but the floor is covered by low-lying

fungi, mosses, and lichens beneath the layer of needles. Bids harvest the seeds of the

conifers, and bears, deer, moose, beaver, and muskrat live around the ponds and along the

streams. Wolves prey on these larger mammals. In the mountains, the taigalike forests

also harbour the wolverine and mountain lion.

The coniferous forest that runs along the west coast of Canada and the United

States contains some of the tallest conifer trees ever in existence, including the coastal

redwoods. The constant humidity and relatively warm conditions are believed

responsible for the unusual growth and development of these trees.

Temperate deciduous forests

Temperate forests are found around the world just south of the taiga.) They are

also found in other areas, such as parts of Japan, Australia, and South America, where

there is a moderate climate and well-defined winter and summer seasons and relatively

high precipitation (75 to 150 cm per year).

In North America the trees are bare in winter, but awake from dormancy and start

to grow again in the spring. They continue growing in the summer, only to lose their

leaves and become dormant again in the fall. In the summer the tops of the trees (oak,

birch, beech, and maple) form a canopy open enough to allow sunlight to penetrate to the

forest floor, thereby allowing several other layers of growth. Beneath the trees are
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shrubs, grasses, wild flowers, and finally, mosses and liverworts.

Animal life is abundant, Myriads of insects are food for insectivorous birds, such

as the red-eyed vireo and woodpeckers. Mammals, such as squirrels, rabbits, deer mice,

and white-tailed deer, make their home in the woods and are preyed upon by foxes and

wolves.

Tropical forests

The largest tropical rain forest is found in the Amazon basin of South America,

but such a forest also occurs at the equator in Africa and Australia, where it is always

warm and rain is plentiful. The trees are broadleaved evergreens that form a tall canopy

composed of several layers with characteristic plant and animals in each layer. Woody

vines, called lianas, reach from the forest floor to the top of the canopy, and epiphytes,

such as orchids, bromeliads, and ferns, cling to the trees but are not parasitic. Although

epiphytes grow on the surface of other plants, they take their nutrients and water from the

air. The dense layers of the tropical canopy typically do not allow light to reach the forest

floor, and therefore there is no growth here and little litter because decomposition takes

place so quickly.

While we usually think of tropical forests as being nonseasonal rain forests, there

are tropical forests with wet and dry seasons in India, southeast Asia, West Africa, South

and Central America, the West Indies, and northern Australia. Here there are deciduous

trees and the canopy does allow light to pass through, helping produce layers of growth

beneath the trees. In fact, the tangled mass of growth in tropical seasonal forests is

known as jungle.

In both types of tropical forests most animal life is arboreal, living in the trees.

There are insects, snakes, lizards, and frogs that spend their whole lives in the treetops.

Exploitation

The tropical rain forests are being cleared at an ever-increasing rate and no where

is this more evident than in Central America and South America. First, logging

companies enter the forest to extract valuable hardwoods such as mahogany and tropical

cedar. Because these trees are tied to others by vines and lianas, many noncommercial
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trees are damaged. Then landless peasants arrive to cut and burn the vegetation so that

enough inorganic nutrients are provided for a few years of farming. Without further

fertilization, the soil soon becomes incapable of sustaining crops because tropical rain

forests have nutrient-poor soil-all the nutrients are located in the luxurious living matter.

Often the land is now converted to pasture by cattlemen who can acquire the capital to

plant pasture grasses since it is known that there will be a market for the beef in the

United States and Europe. After about seven to ten years, the effects of overgrazing and

torrential rains turn the soil into a wasteland.

Many scientists are extremely concerned about exploitation of the tropical rain

forests. They point out that many species will become extinct because there are more

kinds of plants and animals here than in any other biome. In regard to trees, for example,

researchers have determined that, while there are approximately 800 species in all of

North America, there are about 2,500 known species of trees in the Malay Penninsula.

The same type of data is available for animals.

For example, a small region at 60° latitude might have as many as ten species of

ants, at 40° there may be 50 to 100 species, and within 20° of the equator, 100 to 200

species. Similarly, Greenland has 56 species of breeding birds, New York, 105,

Guatemala, 469, and Colombia 1,395.

Biomes in the mountains

If one travels from the Southern to the Northern Hemisphere, it would be possible

to observe first a tropical rain forest, followed by a temperate deciduous forest, and then

the taiga and tundra, in that order. One could also observe a similar series of biomes by

travelling from the bottom to the top of mountains (Fig. 2). These transitions are largely

due to decreasing temperature as the altitude increases, but they are also influenced by

soil conditions and rainfall.

Succession

FOR

During the process of succession, a sequence of communities replaces one another

in an orderly and predictable way. The complete process is called a sere, and each stage is
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a seral stage.

The stages of succession vary from site to site, but Figure 3-shows-a possible

succession for abandoned farmland in the eastern United States. The first community,

called the pioneer community, includes plants such as weeds that are able to colonize

disturbed areas because of their ability to survive under harsh conditions, such as limited

soil moisture and direct sunlight. This colonization prepares the way for native plants of

the area that most likely have a longer growing period. Notice in Figure 3, how one plant

community replaces another until a climax community has been achieved. A different

mix of animals would be associated with each of these communities. Whereas previous

communities are replaced, the final stage, a climax community, is able to sustain itself

indefinitely.

Stability versus productivity

There is an ecological theory, based on laboratory and field data, that suggests that

stability of a biome is related to its complexity. Certainly the climax, or mature, stage of

succession is the most stable since it maintains itself with little-change. One reason for

this might very well be that the last stage is the most complex in terms of species

diversity. Thus, if one species or population of a climax community is reduced in size or

eliminated, the other populations can compensate for this loss.

The early stages of succession are obviously unstable, as witnessed by the fact that

they are replaced by later stages. However, investigators find that these stages show the

most growth and therefore are the most productive.

Knowledge of this relationship between productivity and stability can be utilized

by humans when they alter biomes for their own purposes. For example, in forestry the

removal of trees places the biome in an earlier successional stage and causes greater

productivity (new trees will grow) but also increases instability. Stability can be

safeguarded in one of two ways; (a) remove only trees of a certain mature age and leave

younger trees standing and (b) remove trees from certain area, but leave sections in

between standing.Unfortunately, stability is not always safeguarded and many parts of

the world that once had forests have them no more.

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. Aquatic Biomes

In these biomes, organisms vary according to whether they are adapted to fresh or salt
water, warm or cold water, quiet or turbulent water, and the presence or absence of light. In both
salt and fresh water, free-drifting microscopic organisms, called plankton, are important
components of the biome. Phytoplankton are photosynthesizing algae that only become noticeable
when they reproduce to the extent that a green scum or red tide appears on the water. Zooplankton
are animals that feed on the phytoplankton.

Lakes and ponds

Lakes, being larger than ponds, have three layers of water that differ as to temperature (Fig.
4). In summer, the upper surface layer, the epilimnion, is warm; the middle thermocline
experiences an abrupt drop in temperature; and the hypolimnion is cold. This difference in
temperature prevents mixing; and the epilimnion lacks nutrients found in the hypolimnion, while
the hypolimnion lacks oxygen found in the epilimnion. In the fall, as the epilimnion cools and in
the spring as it warms, mixing does occur, causing phytoplankton growth to be most abundant at
these times.

Lakes and ponds can be divided into three life zones; the littoral zone is closest to the shore,
the limnetic zone forms the sunlit body of the lake, and the profundal zone is below the level of
light penetration. Aquatic plants are rooted in the shallow littoral zone of a lake.

The rest of the organisms are divided into five groups according to their habitats. The
periphyton (Fig. 5) are microscopic or near-microscopic organisms, such as algae or protozoans,
that cling to plants, wood, and rocks in the littoral zone. The plankton of the limnetic zone includes
both phytoplankton and zooplankton, such as rotifers, copepods, and water fleas. Neuston, insects
that live at the water-air interface, include the water strider and water scorpion, animals that can
literally walk on water, and the whirligig beetle and mosquito larvae that prefer a location just
beneath the surface of the water. Neuston ၊ Other insects, such as diving beetles, water boatmen,
and backswimmers, are a part of the nekton, a group of free swimming organisms. Most nekton are
fish. Minnows and killifish are fish that prefer the littoral zone; trout, whitefish, and cisco prefer
profundal zone, particularly the hypolimnion; pike, bass, and gar can tolerate warmer water.

The benthos are animals that live on the bottom in the benthic zone. In a lake the benthos
include crayfish, snails, clams, various types of worms, and insect larvae. Among the insects that
spend a large portion of their life cycle as larvae in the benthic zone are the dragonfly, damselfly,
and mayfly. The benthic zone may, however, become so depleted of oxygen at times that only such
organisms as sludge worms and midge fly larvae, known as bloodworms, can survive.

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River and streams

At first, river and streams have rapidly flowing water as they move down out of the
mountains. အစပိုင်းတွင် မြစ်နှင့်ချောင်းများသည် တောင်များပေါ်မှ ရွေ့လျားလာ
သဖြင့် ရေများ လျင်မြန်စွာ စီးဆင်းလာသည်။ Here insect larvae and water plants are adapted
to clinging to rocks as the water passes by. ဤနေရာတွင် အင်းဆက်သားလောင်းများနှင့် ရေအပင်
များသည် ရေဖြတ်သွားသောအခါတွင် ကျောက်တုံးများနှင့် တွယ်ကပ်ရန် အဆင်ပြေသည်။ In
intermittent pools, various species of fish, including trout, which prefer cool oxygenated water,
may be found. အေးမြသော အောက်ဆီဂျင်ပါသော ရေကို နှစ်သက်သော ငါးမျိုးစိတ်များ
အပါအဝင် ရေကူးကန်များတွင် အမျိုးမျိုးသော ငါးမျိုးစိတ်များကို တွေ့ရှိ
နိုင်သည်။ As the river nears the ocean, water flow becomes much slower, plankton can now
accumulate, and the community begins to resemble that of a lake or pond.

မြစ်သည် သမုဒ္ဒရာနှင့် နီးကပ်လာသည်နှင့်အမျှ ရေစီးဆင်းမှု နှေးကွေးလာကာ

ရေမျောများ စုပုံလာကာ လူ့အသိုင်းအဝိုင်းသည် အင်းအိုင် သို့မဟုတ် ရေကန်တစ်ခု
နှင့် ဆင်တူလာသည်။

Water is removed from rivers to grow crops, for use as an industrial coolant, and for various
household purposes. သီးနှံစိုက်ပျိုးရန်၊ စက်မှုအအေးခံအဖြစ်နှင့် အိမ်သုံး
ရည်ရွယ်ချက်အမျိုးမျိုးအတွက် အသုံးပြုရန်အတွက် မြစ်များမှ ရေကို ဖယ်ရှားသည်။
At the same time, sewage and pollutants are added to the rivers. တစ်ချိန်တည်းမှာပင် မိလ္လာ
နှင့် ညစ်ညမ်းသော အညစ်အကြေးများကို မြစ်ချောင်းများထဲသို့ ထည့်ပေးသည်။ With an
ever-increasing population, more water is removed and more waste is added to rivers. လူဦးရေ
တိုးပွားလာသည်နှင့်အမျှ ရေပိုထုတ်ပြီး မြစ်များတွင် အမှိုက်များ ပိုများလာ
သည်။ Since both of these tend to decrease river flow, there is some question if dependable flow can
be assured by the year 2000 unless projects are immediately carried out to minimize the use of
rivers for these purposes.

ယင်းနှစ်ခုစလုံးသည် မြစ်ရေစီးကြောင်းကို လျော့ကျသွားစေသောကြောင့်၊ ဤ

ရည်ရွယ်ချက်များအတွက် မြစ်များအသုံးပြုမှုနည်းပါးစေရန် စီမံကိန်းများကို
ချက်ချင်းမလုပ်ဆောင်ပါက 2000 ခုနှစ်တွင် စိတ်ချယုံကြည်နိုင်ပါ့မလားဟု
မေးခွန်းထုတ်စရာရှိပါသည်။

The Coast

Rivers flow down to the sea to form estuaries, semi enclosed bay like regions. မြစ်များ
သည် မြစ်ဝများ ၊ အလုံပိတ် ပင်လယ်အော်များ ကဲ့သို့ ဒေသများ ဖြစ်ပေါ်လာစေရန် မြစ်
များ သည် ပင်လယ်ထဲသို့ စီးဆင်းသွားသည် ။ The Silt carried by a river forms mudflats, and
within the shallow waters, a salt marsh in the temperate zone and a mangrove swamp in the
subtropical and tropical zones are likely to develop. မြစ်တစ်စင်းမှ သယ်ဆောင်လာသော နုန်း
များသည် ရွှံ့မြေများဖြစ်ပြီး ရေတိမ်ပိုင်းအတွင်း၊ perate zone ရှိ ဆား
စိမ့်စိမ့်များနှင့် အပူပိုင်းဒေသနှင့် အပူပိုင်းဒေသများတွင် ဒီရေစိမ့်စိမ့်
များသည် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးလာဖွယ်ရှိသည်။ Along either side of the estuary community, the seashores
reach out along the coast. It is proper to think of sea coasts and estuaries, including mudflats, salt
marshes, and mangrove swamps, as belonging to one ecological system.

မြစ်ဝကျွန်းပေါ်အသိုက်အဝန်း၏ တစ်ဖက်တစ်ချက်စီတွင် ကမ်းရိုးတန်း

တစ်လျှောက်ရှိ ပင်လယ်ကမ်းခြေများသည် ဂေဟစနစ်တစ်ခုပိုင်အဖြစ် ရွှံ့နွံများ၊
ဆားငန်များနှင့် ဒီရေလှောင်ကန်များအပါအဝင် ပင်လယ်ကမ်းရိုးတန်းများနှင့်
မြစ်ကမ်းရိုးတန်းများကို စဉ်းစားရန် သင့်လျော်ပါသည်။
10
Lakes and ponds

Fig. 4. Stratification of a lake

a. In the summer, a large lake has three distinct layers and the nutrients tend to collect in the
hypolimnion, which becomes depleted of oxygen.
b. In the autumn, a turnover occurs that allows mixing.
c. In the winter, nutrients again collect in the hypolimnion.
d. In the spring, another turnover occurs.

11
Fig. 5. Life zones of a lake

a. Periphyton occur in the littoral zone.

b. Zooplankton are in the limnetic zone where they provide food for carnivores.

c. Neuston are at the water's surface.

d. Nekton are free Swimmers in the limnetic zone where food can be found.

e. Benthic animals are in the benthos, the bottom of the lake.

12
 Estuary မြစ်ဝကျွန်းပေါ်

A river brings fresh water into the estuary, and the sea, because of the tides, brings salt
water. မြစ်သည် မြစ်ဝသို့ ချိုသောရေကို ဆောင်တတ်၏။ There is gradation of salinity, or a
gradual increase of salt water, from the river to the sea. ဆားငန်ဓာတ်အဆင့်သို့ ဆင်းလာခြင်း
သို့မဟုတ် ဆားငန်ရေများ မြစ်မှ ပင်လယ်သို့ တစ်ဖြည်းဖြည်း တိုးလာခြင်းဖြစ်သည်။
Organisms living in an estuary must be able to withstand constant mixing of waters and rapid
changes in salinity. မြစ်ဝတွင်နေထိုင်သော သက်ရှိများသည် ရေ၏အဆက်မပြတ်ရောစပ်မှု
နှင့် ဆားငန်ဓာတ်ပြောင်းလဲမှုများကို လျင်မြန်စွာ ခံနိုင်ရည်ရှိရမည်။ Not many
organisms are suited to this environment, but for those that are suited there is an abundance of
nutrients. ဤပတ်ဝန်းကျင်နှင့် သင့်လျော်သော သက်ရှိများစွာမရှိသော်လည်း သင့်လျော်
သောသူများအတွက် အာဟာရဓာတ်များစွာရှိသည်။ An estuary acts as a nutrient trap because the
tides bring nutrients from the sea and at the same time prevent the seaward escape of nutrients
brought by the river. Because of this, estuaries produce much organic food.

မြစ်ကမ်းပါးသည် ပင်လယ်ရေမှ အာဟာရများကို ယူဆောင်လာပြီး တစ်ချိန်တည်းမှာ

ပင် မြစ်မှ သယ်ဆောင်လာသော အာဟာရများ၏ ပင်လယ်ကမ်းစပ်မှ လွတ်မြောက်မှုကို တားဆီး
ပေးသောကြောင့် မြစ်ဝှေးသည် အာဟာရထောင်ချောက်တစ်ခုအဖြစ် လုပ်ဆောင်သည်။ထို့
အတွက်ကြောင့် မြစ်ကမ်းပါးများသည် အော်ဂဲနစ်အစားအစာများစွာကို ထုတ်လုပ်ကြသည်။

Although only a few small fish permanently reside in an estuary, many develop there so that
there is always an abundance of larval and immature fish. ငါးသေးသေးအနည်းငယ်မျှသာ မြစ်ဝ
တွင် အမြဲနေထိုင်ကြသော်လည်း အများအပြားသည် ထိုနေရာတွင် သားလောင်းနှင့် အရွယ်မ
ရောက်သေးသော ငါးများ အမြဲပေါများနေစေရန် ဖွံ့ဖြိုးလာကြသည်။ It has been estimated
that well over half of all marine fishes develop in the protective environment of an estuary, which
explains why estuaries are called the nurseries of the sea. အဏ္ဏဝါငါးအားလုံး၏ ထက်ဝက်
ကျော်သည် မြစ်ဝကျွန်းပေါ်ရှိ အကာအကွယ်ပတ်ဝန်းကျင်တွင် ပေါက်ဖွားလာသည်ဟု
ခန့်မှန်းရပြီး မြစ်ဝများကို အဘယ့်ကြောင့် ပြုစုပျိုးထောင်ခြင်း óf sea ဟုခေါ်
ကြောင်း ရှင်းပြသည်။ Even so, many estuaries are becoming Victims of pollution because of
construction and development along the seacoast.

ဒါတောင် ပင်လယ်ကမ်းရိုးတန်းတလျှောက် ဆောက်လုပ်ရေးနဲ့ ဖွံ့ဖြိုး

တိုးတက်မှုတွေကြောင့် မြစ်ကမ်းပါးအများအပြားဟာ လေထုညစ်ညမ်းမှုရဲ့ သားကောင်တွေ
ဖြစ်လာကြပါတယ်။

Table 2. Seashore terminology

Seashores

Both rocky and sandy shoes are constantly bombarded by the sea as the tides roll in and out,
Table (2) lists the terminology frequently used to divide the seashore into zones according to the
length of time they are submerged underwater.

ပင်လယ်ကမ်းခြေများ
13
 ကျောက်ဆောင်နှင့် သဲဖိနပ် နှစ်ခုစလုံးသည် ဒီရေများ အဝင်အထွက် များလာ
သဖြင့် ပင်လယ်ပြင်တွင် အဆက်မပြတ် တရစပ် ဖောက်ပြန်နေကြသည်၊၊ ဇယား (၂) တွင်
ပင်လယ်ကမ်းခြေကို ရေအောက်နစ်မြုပ်သည့် အချိန်အတိုင်းအတာအလိုက် မကြာခဏ
အသုံးပြုလေ့ရှိသည့် ဝေါဟာရများကို ဇယား (၂) တွင် ဖော်ပြထားပါသည်။

Rocky shore ကျောက်ဆောင်ကမ်းခြေ

The rocky shore (Fig. 6) displays zonation that parallels the tide levels listed in table (2).
ကျောက်ဆောင်ကမ်းခြေ (ပုံ 6) သည် ဇယား (၂) တွင်ဖော်ပြထားသော ဒီရေအဆင့်များနှင့်
အပြိုင် ဇုန်သတ်မှတ်ခြင်းကိုပြသသည်။ In the supralittoral zone, rough periwinkles feed on
darkly coloured lichens. အစွန်းထွက်ဇုန်တွင်၊ ကြမ်းတမ်းသော periwinkles များသည်
နက်မှောင်သောအရောင်ရှိသော lichens များပေါ်တွင် အစာကျွေးသည်။ In the intertidal zone,
common periwinkles feed on brown algae known as rockweed. intertidal zone တွင် အများ
အားဖြင့် periwinkles များသည် rockweed ဟုခေါ်သော အညိုရောင်ရေညှိများကို ကျက်စားကြ
သည်။ Here, too, barnacles and mussels attach themselves to rocks in rows, awaiting the tide before
opening their protective coverings to begin filter feeding. ဤနေရာတွင်လည်း၊ တင်းကုပ်များ
နှင့် ဂုံးများသည် စစ်ထုတ်ခြင်းစတင်ရန် ၎င်းတို့၏အကာအကွယ်အဖုံးများကိုမဖွင့်
မီ ဒီရေကိုစောင့်ဆိုင်းနေသည့် ကျောက်ဆောင်များတွင် တန်းစီထားကြသည်။At the point
where the littoral zone gives way to the sublittoral zone, red Irish moss and large brown kelps
provide a home numerous animals. တိမ်တိုက်ဇုန်သည် အခွဲဇုန်သို့ လမ်းကြောင်းပေး
သည့် နေရာတွင် အနီရောင်အိုင်ယာလန်ရေညှိများနှင့် ကြီးမားသော အညိုရောင် kelp
များသည် အိမ်ရှိတိရစ္ဆာန်များစွာကို ပေးစွမ်းသည်။ Mussels, sea squirts, sea urchins,
and worms all crowd in under the kelp's sturdy holdfasts. Starfish, crabs, and brittle stars prey on
these detritus feeders.

ဂုံးများ၊ ပင်လယ်ရေဖြန်းများ၊ ပင်လယ်ရေပိုက်ကောင်များနှင့် ပိုးကောင်

များ အားလုံးသည် ကယ်လ်ပင်၏ ခိုင်ခံ့သောအစာများအောက်တွင် စုဝေးနေကြသည်။ ကြယ်ငါး
များ၊ ကဏန်းများနှင့် ကြွပ်ဆတ်သောကြယ်များသည် ဤဝမ်းစာကျွေးသူများတွင်
သားကောင်ဖြစ်သည်။

Sandy shore

On a sandy beach the dry grains of sand, which are in perpetual motion, do not provide a
suitable substratum for the attachment of organisms. Also absent are crevices and seaweeds to
protect animals from the burning sun. Therefore, animals that make their home on sandy beaches
(Fig. 7) either burrow during the day and surface to feed at night or they remain permanently within
their burrows or tubes. Ghost crabs and sandhoppers (amphipods) burrow above high tide and feed
at night when the tide is out. Sandworms and sand (ghost) shrimp remain within their burrows in
the intertidal zone, feeding on detritus whenever possible.

Coral reefs

Coral reefs are areas of biological abundance found in shallow tropical waters that have a
minimum temperature of The chiet constituents of a coral reef are stony coral animals and
calcareOus red and green algae. Corals, Hke sea anemones, have a sac-like body with a crown of
tentacles about the mouth. The stony corals secrete a calcium carbarbonate (limestone)
exoskeleton; the soft corals secrete only microscopic spicules; and the horny corals secrete only a
small amount of limestone but stiffen their bodies with gorgonin, a flexible substance. The horny

14
corals often take the shape of fans and plumes. Corals do not usually occur individually; rather.
they form colonies derived from an individual coral that has reproduced by means of budding.

Rocky shore

Fig. 6. Animals typical of a rock coast in the temperate zone. Limpets, periwinkles, barnacles, and
mussels are all adapted to clinging to rocks.

Sandy shore

15
Fig. 7. Animals typical of a sandy beach in the temperate zone. Sand hoppers, ghost crabs,
sandworms, and ghost shrimp are all adapted to burrowing in the sand.

Microscopic algae live inside the coral. The corals, which feed at night, and the algae,
which photosynthesized during the day, share materials and nutrients. Only the top layer of a reef
contains living corals. They are like a veneer, growing a few millimetres a year on top of
congregate ancestral corals.

16