Imagine life on Earth without water. Could you live in such a world? Today, almost all life on Earth relies on water, including plants and animals. The freshwater biome includes lakes, rivers, wetlands, ice, and even water in the ground. This biome holds a source of food, air, and water for plants, animals, and people all over the world. Learn about the geography and resources of the freshwater biome as well as how animals and people have adapted to and impacted freshwater environments. Explore this biome's future and what people can do to help keep it safe.

This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Biomes of the World: series covers the freshwater biomes that exist in wetlands, ponds and lakes, and rivers and streams, examining all aspects that define these biomes: Vegetation, Geographical Distribution, Challenges posed by the environment, Adaptation of the plants and animals to the environment.

This beautiful book gives readers core information about freshwater biomes in rivers, lakes, wetlands, and estuaries. Find out where each kind is found, how animals and plants have adapted to life in and around water, who lives near these waterways, and how humans impact life there.

Did you know that most of Earth's oxygen comes from the marine biome? The marine biome is the largest biome in the world. This biome includes the five main oceans and is a source of food, air, and water for plants, animals, and people all over the world. Learn about the geography and resources of the marine biome as well as how animals and people have adapted to and impacted marine environments. Explore this biome's future and what people can do to help keep it safe.

Readers will learn about the two main types of freshwater biomes, which are standing (ponds and lakes) and flowing (streams and rivers). The text will focus on mainly on the importance of freshwater, as well as the plants and animals that inhabit it. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Abdo Kids is a division of ABDO.

A look at Earth's freshwater and saltwater biomes and the animals that inhabit them.

Growing human populations and higher demands for water impose increasing impacts and stresses upon freshwater biodiversity. Their combined effects have made these animals more endangered than their terrestrial and marine counterparts. Overuse and contamination of water, overexploitation and overfishing, introduction of alien species, and alteration of natural flow regimes have led to a 'great thinning' and declines in abundance of freshwater animals, a 'great shrinking' in body size with reductions in large species, and a 'great mixing' whereby the spread of introduced species has tended to homogenize previously dissimilar communities in different parts of the world. Climate change and warming temperatures will alter global water availability, and exacerbate the other threat factors. What conservation action is needed to halt or reverse these trends, and preserve freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world? This book offers the tools and approaches that can be deployed to help conserve freshwater biodiversity.