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Cattails
Photograph by Raymond K. Gehman
Cattails thrive in this freshwater lagoon in South Carolina's Huntington Beach State Park. Areas like this, where freshwater meets the ocean, create dazzlingly diverse ecosystems called estuaries.
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Crowfoot Mountain
Photograph by George F. Mobley
The talus slopes of Crowfoot Mountain sweep into Alberta, Canada's Bow Lake in Banff National Park. The valley where Bow Lake sits was carved by glaciers more than 10,000 years ago.
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Fisherman and Buffalo, Yellowstone River
Photograph by Raymond K. Gehman
There's plenty of bull in the fish story, as an angler and bison share a stretch of Wyoming's Yellowstone River. Flowing waters like rivers and streams are called lotic ecosystems; standing water like lakes and ponds are lentic.
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Tufa
Photograph by Phil Schermeister
These calcium carbonate towers, called tufas, formed underwater in California's Mono Lake. They were exposed when lake levels dropped dramatically after tributary rivers were diverted to provide water for nearby Los Angeles.
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Freshwater Prairie Sunset
Photograph by Raymond K. Gehman
The waters of Okefenokee Swamp in the southern United States reflect a glorious sunset. Such wetlands are comparable to rain forests and coral reefs in their biological diversity and productivity.
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Water Lily Pads
Photograph by Raymond K. Gehman
Lily pads and other vegetation dot the waters of Georgia's Okefenokee Swamp. This place gets its name from a Creek Indian word meaning "land of trembling earth," which refers to the unstable floating islands that are common within the swamp.
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Tap Water
Photograph by Peter Essick
A boy cups his hands to drink from a public water tap in Dimeka, Ethiopia. On average, African and Asian women walk some 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) a day to fetch clean water.
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