Marine life live in the water column of large bodies of water and that cannot swim against a current. They provide a crucial source of food to many large aquatic organisms, such as fish and whales. These organisms include drifting or floating bacteria, archaea, algae, protozoa and animals that inhabit, for example, the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. Essentially, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than any phylogenetic or taxonomic classification. Though many planktonic species are microscopic in size, "plankton" includes organisms covering a wide range of sizes, including large organisms such as jellyfish. The
Freshwater inflow Freshwater inflow Environmental flows can be broken down into instream flow, freshwater inflow, and outflow, as shown in the depiction below. Instream flow is the freshwater water flowing in rivers or streams. Freshwater inflow is the freshwater that flows into an estuary. Outflow is the flow from an estuary to the ocean. This article's focus is upon freshwater inflow. Freshwater inflow: Freshwater flows into an estuary and mixes with the marine water of the estuarine ecosystem. The mixing of freshwater inflow and the marine water of the estuarine ecosystem occurs spatially and temporally from climatic influences including tidal action, seasonal