This document describes and compares various aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. It discusses 10 different types of natural ecosystems: tropical rainforests, taiga forests, temperate forests, tundra, shrublands, lentic (still water) ecosystems like lakes, deserts, grasslands, littoral shoreline ecosystems, and lotic (moving water) ecosystems like rivers. Each ecosystem is defined and an example is typically provided. The key differences between lentic and lotic ecosystems are also summarized, with lentic involving standing bodies of water that may have layered communities, while lotic involves flowing water that transports gases, sediments and has temperature changes along its course.