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Watershed Ecology > Exam 1 > Flashcards

Exam 1 Flashcards

1
Q

What is the Fresh Water Conundrum?

A
  • Fresh water is plentiful and cheap in many places

- But very difficult and expensive to move to places that need it most

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2
Q

Where is Earth’s water?

A

3% Fresh water

97% Saline (ocean)

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3
Q

Where is earths freshwater?

A
  • 30% ground water
  • 68% icecaps and glaciers
  • .3% surface water (most of this is lakes)
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4
Q

How much of the worlds water is available for human use?

A

0.3%

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5
Q

How much water is needed per yearh for food, industries and the environment?

A

1,700m^3

1.7 million liters per person

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6
Q

Where is the worlds freshwater located?

A
  • 60% is in the Amazon and Congo rivers

- 8% of Canada is lake

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7
Q

How often is atmospheric water recycled?

A
  • 40x per year

- every 9 days

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8
Q

What is the catchment water budget?

A

a function of the hydrological cycle and watershed characteristics

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9
Q

Conservation of mass

A

• The time rate of change of mass stored within the
control volume equals the difference between the
inflow rate and the outflow rate
-=inflow’-outflow’

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10
Q

main components of hydrologic cycle

A
  • precipitation
  • ET
  • Runoff
  • Storage
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11
Q

Catchment water budget equation

A

P+G(in)-(RO+ET+G(out))=(delta)S

  • Delta S is change in groundwater storage
  • Through rearranging, P-ET=RO
  • RO is what’s available for human consumption
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12
Q

How is runoff generated?

A
  • when rainfall rate is greater than infiltration rate

- precipitation that can’t infiltrate becomes runoff

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13
Q

Hydrologic connectivity during dry season

A

-streams fed mainly by groundwater (hyphoreic)

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14
Q

Hydrologic connectivity during wet season

A

-tributary and mainstem runoff dominates streamflow

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15
Q

In what ways can runoff be measured

A
  • Instantaneous discharge rate (units of V/t
  • catchment annual water yield (units of Volume)
  • Catchment-average depth (units of length)
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16
Q

For budgeting, water is most often meaured in units of _____

A

depth, (mm, cm, in)

V/A=D

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17
Q

The water year

A
  • Surface water supple calculations
  • from Oct 1 to Sept 30
  • named based on the year the water year ends
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18
Q

Why is october the start of the water year

A

-Water inputs (P) exceed loss to evaporation (ET)

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19
Q

Precipitation supply depends on:

A
  • Air mass circulation patterns
  • Distance and direction from large water bodies
  • Location with respect to mountains
  • Altitude
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20
Q

______ is a major climate driver

A

Topography

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21
Q

When does precipitation occur

A

-when an air mass is lifted, becomes colled, and reaches saturation vapor pressure

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22
Q

Potential Evapotranspiration (PET)

A
  • the amount of water that would be evaporated and transpired if there were sufficient water available
  • Is higher in summer
  • Occurs most where ET is high demand (southwest US)
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23
Q

Where does actual ET occur

A

-where it is hot and wet

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24
Q

When P>ET there is a

A
  • surplus

- divide between surplus and deficit at 100 longitude

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25
Q

When P

A

deficit

-divide between surplus and deficit at 100 longitude

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26
Q

John Wesley Powell’s vision

A
  • settlement denisty and land claim size should follow water supplies
  • Stressed self-reliance, farmers should spend their money and not the gov’s on dams and canals for water
  • Use of water tied to the land, no selling of water rights to distant entities
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27
Q

Flow Regime

A
  • largely a reflection of climate

- integrates rainfall magnitude, amount and timing of ET, and snowfall

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28
Q

5 Characteristics of flow regime

A
  • Magnitude of discharge
  • Frequency of events
  • Duration
  • Timing
  • Rate of change
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29
Q

What is the driver of flow regimes?

A

-Precipitation

30
Q

Flow regime equation

A

-Q=P-ET+(delta)S

31
Q

Exceedance probability

A

-the chance that an event of specified magnitude will be equaled or exceeded in any defined period of time, on average

32
Q

Lag time on storm hydrograph

A

-time between peak precip and peak Q

33
Q

Fluvial

A

– processes associated with rivers and

streams and the deposits and landforms created by them

34
Q

Geomorphology

A

-scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape them

35
Q

Factors affecting erosion and transport of sediment from land surfaces

A
  • Wind, temp, rainfall runoff
  • Soil character
  • Topography
  • Soil cover
36
Q

What is a process domain

A
  • predictable areas of a landscape within which distinct suites of geomorphic processes govern habitat type, structure, and dynamics
  • Help us understand linkages between geomorphic processes and ecosystems
37
Q

The Catchment-Channel Conveyor Belt

A

-dominant catachment zones of erosion, transport, and depostion

38
Q

Basic geomorphic processes (erosion, transport, deposition) maintain a ____

A
  • dynamic equilibrium

- over long time scales, the net effect is to transfer sediments from upslope areas to downstream areas

39
Q

Erosion or deposition depend on:

A

-balance between sediment supply and sediment transport capacity

40
Q

1) Capacity > load: __
2) Capacity < load:__
3) Capacity = load: __

A

1) Erosion
2) Deposition
3) no net erosion/deposition

41
Q

Erosion

A
  • dominant process in upper reaches of streams

- Occurs in 3 dimensions in stream channels (headward, lateral, and vertical erosion

42
Q

Luna Leopold

A
  • father of modern fluvial geomorphology
  • defined common measures of stream dimensions
  • Sinuosity (channel length/downvalley distance)
43
Q

Equation for discharge

A

Q = WDV

44
Q

Bankfull discharge

A
  • discharge of a river which is just cnontained within the banks
  • Max velocity in channel, max potential for transporting sediment
  • in many streams, this represents the approx annual discharge
45
Q

Some indicators of bankfull stage

A
  • deposits of sand or silt at active scour mark
  • top of point bars
  • Changes in vegetation type
  • topographic break in streambank slope
46
Q

Effective discharge (ED) =

A

Freq*magnitude

47
Q

What do we need to do to classify streams?

A

1) Collect empirical data about streams
2) select appropriate classification variables
3) Group samples into homogenous units
4) test the methodology on new data to verify if the method works

48
Q

Quantifying a catchments sediment sources

A
  • identify colluvial and fluvial sediment sources
  • Estimate depth and extent of sediment storage pools
  • Estimate fluxes out of basin
49
Q

Measuring surface erosion

A
  • Erosion plots
  • Erosion stakes
  • Reservoir surveys
  • Tracers
50
Q

What is a watershed

A

-an area of land that drains water,

sediment and dissolved materials to a common receiving body or outlet. It includes interactions with subsurface water.

51
Q

Watershed ecology:

A

-the study of watershed as ecosystems (interacting abiotic and biotic components within watershed boundary)

52
Q

Ecotone (ecosystem boundaries)

A
  • determined by cycles and flux of energy, materials and organisms
  • a boundary ecosystem, a transition zone between 2 adjacent systems
53
Q

Floodway

A

-the channel of a river/stream, plus the adjacent land needed to carry away floodwaters

54
Q

Floodplain

A

-a broader area surrounding the floodway, is inudated during a storm that has a ____% chance of occuring any given year

55
Q

Geomorphic floodplains

A
  • Functional systems that move water, sediment and organic material across the landscape
  • defined by network of channels, land surfaces, and groundwater
56
Q

Ecological floodplains

A

-Lowland ecosystems strongly shaped by river
hydrology and geomorphology
-hotspots of high biodiversity and ecosystem function

57
Q

Hydrologic floodplains

A

-surfaces inundated with a defined flood recurrence interval

58
Q

Catchment hydrology

A
  • the science of water as it relates to the hydrologic cycle

- 3 states, solid, liquid, gas

59
Q

Weather vs climate

A
  • weather: air temp, clouds, precip, wind, etc

- climate: 30 yr average weather

60
Q

Where does a channel network start?

A

-at the threshold where runoff becomes responsible for sediment transport

61
Q

4 dimensions of a watershed

A
  • Longitudinal connectivity
  • Lateral
  • Vertical
  • Temporal
62
Q

Channel drainage patterns are formed by :

A

underlying bedrock and tectonic history

63
Q

Channel avulsion

A
  • sudden change in alignment
  • occurs over decades to centuries
  • leaves complex landscape features
64
Q

Long-term channel/network patterns

A
  • Alluvial fans, constantly changing, eroding

- Mississippi river delta, formed over 700 years ago and is still evolving

65
Q

Some watershed functions and services

A
  • natural flood and erosion control
  • water supply and quantity
  • fish and wildlife habitats
66
Q

The Anthropocene

A

A proposed epoch dating from
the start of significant human impact on the Earth’s geology
and ecosystems, including but
not limited to climate change.

67
Q

What triggered the great acceleration

A
  • the end of WW2

- inspired advnaces in engineering, aerospace, medicine, etc

68
Q

Challenges to water management

A
  • political and watershed boundaries rarely match
  • acute stressors (droughts, floods, poor land use)
  • persistant stressors (nonpoint source pollution, invasive species)
69
Q

How do we deal with cumulative watershed impacts?

A
  • must take a whole-watershed approach
  • adaptive management
  • understand how watershed processes interact to influence water quantity and quality
70
Q

Some watershed management challenges

A
  • water supply and quantity
  • drinking water quality
  • point source pollution
  • nonpoint sources
  • flood risk to people/infrastructure
  • land use changes
  • impacts from energy production

Watershed Ecology (3 decks)

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