Question

Describe the characteristics and examples of Aquatic and Desert animals.

Answer 1

Hint: The desert animals live in desert ecosystems and the aquatic animals live in water ecosystems. Water contains dissolved oxygen and no free oxygen for aquatic life to use for breathing easily. Thus aquatic life has adapted to it. The desert ecosystems are dry and hot regions. Water scarcity has also transformed the flora and fauna living there.

Complete step by step answer: Every ecosystem is defined by its physical and biological features. As every part of the earth has a different physical condition such as different climates and weathers, thus each ecosystem is different. The flora and fauna of an ecosystem adapt to its surroundings accordingly to survive. So aquatic and desert ecosystems are different.
Let us understand each of the ecosystems in detail with its animal species.
Aquatic Animal:
The aquatic animals are those that live in water, whether sweet or salty, for a whole lifetime or a partial lifetime. They utilize the dissolved oxygen present in water to breathe. They do not have lungs so they breathe with the help of skin or gills. The characteristic features of the aquatic animals are that they have specialized organs for breathing like gills. Many of the fishes breathe through gills or by diffusion from the skin. But some large aquatic animals like whales and dolphins have lungs too. Each type of aquatic animal prefers different water habitats. Some prefer marine water like oceans and seas. Others prefer freshwater like rivers and lakes. They can reproduce both sexually like in sharks and asexually like in Starfish.
Desert Animals:
The desert animals are completely different from aquatic animals. The harsh desert conditions allow a sparse species of animals to survive there. Small rodents and insects are majorly found in deserts. Mammals and birds are rare. The Poikilothermic animals that are capable of adjusting their inner body temperature with outer environmental temperatures are the major fauna of deserts. The rodents feed on dry seeds, succulent cactus, or other plants that store water. Most of the animals in deserts live in deep burrows for example desert rats, to retain water loss from their bodies. Life is hard in desert ecosystems as compared to aquatic ecosystems due to high temperatures and low precipitation.

Note: The aquatic ecosystems are the most ancient stable and well-developed biomes of the earth. The aquatic animals are so vast and different that it is believed that a large number of aquatic life is not known to humans due to the inability to explore deeper ocean levels. Being the most ancient creatures on the earth, the aquatic animals are most adapted.