Lesson Three

Question 1

How much of the earths surface is covered in water?

Answer 1

70 percent

Question 2

What is the hydrological cycle?

Answer 2

the exchange of water among reservoirs

Question 3

What are reservoirs?

Answer 3

are any collection of water, (oceans, lakes, rivers, ground water)

Question 4

what powers the hydrological cycle?

Answer 4

solar power

Question 5

What is turnover time?

Answer 5

time required for the entire volume of a particular reservoir to be renewed - this will vary with the reservoir as they replenish at different rates (determined by size and rate of exchange)

Question 6

How is water spread out in the earth?

Answer 6

97 percent is saltwater, 1 percent is freshwater, and most of the freshwater is trapped within glaciers at 65 percent

Question 7

what four things that affect water environment?

Answer 7

light, temperature, water movements, and chemical factors (salinity, oxygen)

Question 8

what is the hydrological cycle?

Answer 8

water evaporates, then condenses into clouds, then it snows or rains when the cloud can no longer hold any more water particles, and the cycle repeats

Question 9

How does water flow in places of solute concentrations?

Answer 9

Water flows from area of low solute concentrations to high solute concentration

Question 10

What are the three different turn over rates?

Answer 10

atmosphere about every nine days, river water two to three weeks, and the ocean about three thousand one hundred years

Question 11

What are the five oceans?

Answer 11

Artic, atlantic, indian, pacific and southern

Question 12

What do currents do in the ocean?

Answer 12

transports, heat, nutrient, oxygen, and organisms

Question 13

What are Gyres?

Answer 13

this is a large scale circular oceanic current that moves right (clockwise) in the northern hemisphere and left (counter clockwise) in the southern hemisphere.

Question 14

What happens when the salt concentration is to high for the organisms salt concentration

Answer 14

the water will leave the body and you become extremely dehydrated however many species have way to fix/contradict this

Question 15

how do deep water currents occur?

Answer 15

they are produce as cool, high density water sinks at the poles, it moves across the ocean floor and then rises along land masses.

Question 16

what are the two different types of deep water currents?

Answer 16

upwelling and downwelling

Question 17

what is the upwelling current?

Answer 17

movement of deeper ocean water to the surface, occurs most commonly in along the west coast of continents and around Antarctica

Question 18

what are downwelling currents?

Answer 18

movement of surface ocean water towards the bottom, occurs most commonly along the east coasts of continents and in the artic

Question 19

What are the three horizontal zones in the oceans?

Answer 19

littoral or intertidal zone, neritic zone and the oceanic zone

Question 20

how can oceans be divided?

Answer 20

by horizontal and vertical zones

Question 21

what is the littoral or intertidal zones?

Answer 21

shallow shoreline affected by tides

Question 22

what is the neritic zone?

Answer 22

from the coast to the margin of the continental shelf

Question 23

what is the oceanic zone?

Answer 23

beyond the netritic

Question 24

what are the five vertical zones?

Answer 24

epipelagic (surface to 200), mesopelagic (200-1000), bathypelagic (1000 - 4000) abyssal (4000 - 6000) and the hadal which is the deepest part of the ocean

Question 25

What are the two habitat zones?

Answer 25

pelagic (habitat above bottom) and benthic (bottom habitats)

Question 26

Photic zone

Answer 26

The upper layers of an ocean or lake which there is enough light to support photosynthesis (around 10m) this is where you find kelp forests and coral reefs

Question 27

what is chemosynthesis and who uses it?

Answer 27

a biological process that uses chemical energy to create food, the organisms that use this are the ones that cannot photosynthesis due to lack of sun

Question 28

What is endemic?

Answer 28

naturally occuring in only a single geographical region (you wont see it any where else)

Question 29

what are thermoclines?

Answer 29

a layer of water through which temperature changes rapidly with depth (warm water is less dense that cold water)

Question 30

what is thermal stratification?

Answer 30

the layering of the water column by temperature

Question 31

what are estuaries?

Answer 31

these are areas in which freshwater (rivers) transition into oceans

Question 32

what is a river basin?

Answer 32

is an area of a continent or island that is drained by a river drainage network

Question 33

What are the three segments you find in the river?

Answer 33

Pool - deeper segments, longer water residence time and slow flow. Riffle - shallower segments, short water residence time, and fast flow. Run - intermeddle depth segment, connects riffles, and pools.

Question 34

What is a riparian zone?

Answer 34

a transition between the aquatic environment of a river and the upland terrestrial community

Question 35

what is the hyporheic zone?

Answer 35

the area below the benthic zone in which surface water meets ground water

Question 36

what is the phreatic zone?

Answer 36

this is the area below the hyporheic zone, this is the zone that contains the ground water

Question 37

what is the wetted channel and the active channel?

Answer 37

the wetted zone always contains water usually the centre of the river and the active zone may only contain water during high flow

Question 38

what is river discharge?

Answer 38

a measure of the water carried by the river

Question 39

what is flood pulse concept?

Answer 39

a theory of river ecology that identifies periodic flooding of an essential organizer of river ecosystem structure and functioning

Question 40

what is the river continuum concept?

Answer 40

a model that predicts a change in physical structure, dominant organisms and the ecosystem processes along the length of the temperate rivers.

Question 41

what is the limnetic zone?

Answer 41

open lake

Question 41

what is the epilimnion?

Answer 41

warm, well lighted surface layer

Question 42

what is metalimnion

Answer 42

zone in which temperature rapidly decreases and water density increases, thermocline (intermediate layer)

Question 42

what is the hypolimnion?

Answer 42

the deepest layer below the epilimnion and thermocline

Question 43

what is eutrophic?

Answer 43

lakes or ecosystems with high nutrient content and high biological production

Question 44

what is dystrophic?

Answer 44

contains brown, acidic water with low productivity and generally low oxygen

Question 45

oligotrophic?

Answer 45

lakes with low nutrient content, abundant oxygen and low primary production

Question 46

what are the two types of peatlands

Answer 46

bogs and ferns

Question 47

what is peat?

Answer 47

consists of partially decomposed plant material that builds up in poorly drained wetland habitats

Question 48

what is the difference between bogs and fens?

Answer 48

Bogs are found in depressions in the landscape. precipitation is the only source of water into this system, they are also always acidic. Fens receive their water from groundwater or surface water.

Question 49

hypoxia vs anoxia

Answer 49

anoxia refers to the complete lack of oxygen delivery to an organism. Hypoxia refers to when an organ experiences an insufficient oxygen delivery