Aquatic systems

Question 1

What are reservoirs?

Answer 1

Places where water tends to get stuck. Ice sheets, ocean, ground water

Question 2

What drives the water cycle?

Answer 2

Solar energy

Question 3

How does water enter and leave reservoirs?

Answer 3

Enters as precipitation or flow, leaves as evaporation

Question 4

How many days does water spend in the atmosphere, rivers, and the ocean?

Answer 4

9 days in the atmosphere, 12-20 days in a river, 3100 years in the ocean

Question 5

Where is most life in the ocean found?

Answer 5

The littoral zone and the neurotic zone. The littoral zone is also called the intertidal zone and is the shallow shoreline under the influence of the tides

Question 6

How much solar energy is absorbed in the first 10 m of water?

Answer 6

80%

Question 7

How does the ocean affect climate patterns on the land?

Answer 7

Gyres are circular ocean currents and create the climate patterns on land

Question 8

What is the only colour of light that can go past 600m?

Answer 8

Blue -> smaller wavelength

Question 9

What is the difference between lentic and lotic freshwater systems?

Answer 9

Lentic is still water, lotic is moving

Question 10

What is the difference between the euphotic and the aphotic zones in the ocean?

Answer 10

Euphotic zone receives lots of light and is driven by photosynthesis. Aphotic is dark and unproductive.

Question 11

Which contains 99% of surface freshwater, lentic or lotic systems?

Answer 11

Lentic -> contained in lakes, ponds, and bogs

Question 12

What is the thermocline?

Answer 12

A layer of water where the temperature changes rapidly

Question 13

What are the 2 zones in a lake?

Answer 13

The littoral zone -> where the sunlight hits the soil and is highly productive
The limnetic zone -> less productive

Question 14

What are the 3 layers of the limentic zone?

Answer 14

Epilimnion -> warm, lots of O2 but not a lot of nutrients
Metalimnion -> where the thermocline is
Hypolimnion -> dark, cold, low O2, but lots of nutrients

Question 15

What is morphometry?

Answer 15

The surface shape, surface area, underwater form and depth influences the turbulence, stratification, sedimentation, and the extent of the littoral zone

Question 16

What 3 variables affect the amount of nutrients and organic matter in a lake?

Answer 16

Catchment, climate, geology

Question 17

What are the characteristics of a eutrophic lake?

Answer 17

Highly productive, usually shallow and warm, generally low O2 levels. Littoral zone is shallow and broad, often has green-brownish water.

Question 18

What are the characteristics of a oligotrophic lake?

Answer 18

Low productivity, generally deep and cold with high O2. Steep banks, small epilimnion, blue-green water

Question 19

What are the human impacts on freshwater systems?

Answer 19

Pollution -> municipal and agriculture run-off, industrial waste
Bioaccumulation
Eutrophication alters algae levels, increases toxic mycrocystin, uses all all the O2 and kills the fish
Habitat alteration
Introduction of invasive species

Question 20

What are peatlands?

Answer 20

Poorly drained wetland areas with low decomposition and an accumulation of organic matter, create a carbon reserve

Question 21

What are the characteristics of bogs?

Answer 21

Fed only by precipitation, low water conditions
Nutrient poor
Acidic
Anoxic

Question 22

What are the characteristics of fens?

Answer 22

Fed by precipitation, streams, and underground water sources
Medium amount of nutrients
Can be alkaline or acidic

Question 23

What adaptations are required to live in a lotic system?

Answer 23

Adaptations for attachment, to avoid getting swept downstream

Question 24

What 3 variables are most important in lotic systems?

Answer 24

Light -> how much reaches the surface and how far it reaches down
Movement -> rate varies with the seasons, erosion from the land, suspended sediments
Temperature -> closely tracks air temperature, can create micro-temperature regions in the water

Question 25

What is the dominant defining feature in streams and rivers?

Answer 25

Movement: influences the channel morphology, the substrate, the supply of O2 and food, and the physical force on the species that live there

Question 26

How does the channel shape of a river tend to vary with movement speed?

Answer 26

Slower moving water bodies tend to have a snake shape.

Faster moving rivers tend to be straight.

Question 27

What are allochthonous sources of organic matter?

Answer 27

Input comes from outside the aquatic system.

Ex. Tree leaves

Question 28

What are autochthonous sources of organic matter?

Answer 28

Inputs from within the system, driven by photosynthesis. The nutrients may come from outside, but organisms inside the system drive the productivity.

Question 29

What is the river continuum concept?

Answer 29

• Headwaters are low in nutrients and are dependent on outside input, photosynthesis takes over more farther downstream
• Animals go from shredders to grazers to collectors
• A gradient from allochthonous to autochthonous