Unit review Flashcards
How much of the Earth’s surface is water? (In percent)
74%
Name 2 influences on the many variations in Earth’s water supply.
- Natural occurrences
- Human activities
What is potable water?
Water that is safe for humans to drink.
How much water is available for humans to drink?
0.003%
What is water quality?
The measure of the amount of substances besides water in a water sample; describes how pure the water is.
True of False: water in nature is never pure.
True; but that doesn’t mean it isn’t good water.
What is the most common salt?
Sodium chloride.
What is salinity?
The amount of dissolved salt in water.
True or False: fresh water was a higher salinity than sea water.
False; it’s the other way around.
True or False: minerals can affect the taste of water
True
What is hard water?
Water containing a high concentration of calcium and magnesium.
True or false: escherichia coli (e.coli) cannot kill you.
False; it can cause illness and death, although human treatment processes usually take care of it.
What does good e.coli do?
It helps dissolve the food in your body.
What does bad e.coli do?
It sticks to the digestive system and rips it up.
True or false: Water from a well is rarely tested.
True
Why is city water always treated?
Because it comes from surface locations which are highly susceptible to pollution.
Name 3 items drinking water is tested for.
Possible answers:
- taste and odour
- turbidity (cloudiness) and colour
- toxic substances and other pollutants
- bacteria
- hardness or mineral content
- pH
- dissolved oxygen
- solids (including floating materials)
- dissolved solids
Name two things that can remove salt from water.
- Distillation
- Reverse osmosis
Explain distillation.
It’s a technique for separating solutions that involves boiling and condensation—the boiled water vapour leaves the salt behind and condensation converts the water vapour back to a liquid.
What is reverse osmosis?
The movement of water through a semi-permeable membrane from an area of lower concentration to higher concentration to purify water. It is the opposite of osmosis.
What are the three states of matter?
Solid, liquid, gas
Waves are movements on the ____ of the water.
Surface.
What are tides?
Tides are regular rising and falling of very large bodies of water. They are the daily changes in water level of an ocean.
In most places there are ____ high tides and ____ low tides a day.
Two, two
Most waves are caused by what?
The wind
True or false: as the wind increases, a wave gets bigger.
True
What is the main cause of tides?
The gravitational force of the moon.
What do people keep track of tides with?
Tide tables
What are stream characteristics?
Characteristics used to describe a stream or a river; these include volume, rate of flow, slope, and shape of the stream’s bed.
True of False: waves cannot shape a shoreline.
False; they can.
What is erosion?
The wearing away and transporting of rock fragments and soil.
What are sediments?
Eroded rock fragments and soil carries by water and wind.
What is deposition?
The laying down and depositing of sediments.
What are deposition points called?
Deltas
The Earth is sometimes called the ____ ____.
Blue planet
What is a watershed?
An area of land that drains into one main lake or river.
What is a continental divide?
The highest point of land on a continent.
True or false: rivers flow into different oceans depending on which side of the continental divide they start.
True
What is North America’s continental divide?
The Rocky Mountains.
What is the Lithosphere?
The solid outer part of Earth broken into plates.
What is a glacier?
A large moving body of ice.
Glaciers that cover vast areas of land are called…. (There are two names)
Continental glaciers or icecaps.
If the glacier moves forward and grows, is it warm or cold?
Cold
What is the climate?
The average weather measured over a long period of time.
True or False: wind with a lot of moisture will be warm.
True
T or F: Water cannot hold heat longer than other substances.
False.
What are currents?
A stream of water that moves within a larger body of water.
Name four things currents can be caused by.
- Wind
- Temperature differences in the water
- Salinity differences in the water
- Earth’s rotation
True or false: waves move in circular movements.
True
_____ currents are caused by steady winds and can be carried great distances.
Surface
Winds over a warm currents will carry a ____ amount of water, while winds over cold currents will carry a ____ amount of water.
High, low
Diversity in an ecosystem is…
The description of the variety of different species in an ecosystem and may also be used to describe variety in a population or species.
Does salt water support more diverse living things than fresh water? If so, why? If not, why not?
It does because of its layers and different number of environments.
Name 5 environmental factors that lead to aquatic adaptations.
- Temperature
- Light
- Pressure
- salinity
- water movement
What is a population?
A group of organisms of the same species that live in a particular area.
Name three things a change in population could mean.
- an increase/decrease in total population
- a change in the number of males vs females
- a change in the number of young vs old organisms
What are the 3 types of changes in population?
- seasonal changes
- short-term changes
- long-term changes
When a lake’s acidity is to the point where no living things can survive in it, it’s called a ____ lake.
Dead
True of false: fish gils are like swim trunks
True
What is an adaptation?
A physical or behavioural characteristic that increases a species’ chance of survival in a particular environment.
What are the 3 major types of water use worldwide?
- Agriculture
- Industry
- domestic
____% of all water use is used for irrigation to grow crops.
73%
22% of all water use is by industries as _____, ______, _____, _____ _______.
coolants, solvents, washing, diluting pollutants
What is giardia?
A micro-organism that causes “beaver-fever”.
____% of the total water use is in our homes.
5%
What does it mean to monitor something?
To observe, check, or keep track of something for a specific purpose.
What causes ocean basins?
When tectonic plates diverge or move away from each other on the ocean floor, it creates gaps where magma can rise up. When the magma seeps through the gaps, it solidifies as it cools, creating a new layer of ocean crust.
What a continental drainage system?
When at the edge of the continent, two plates meet. As they push against each other, the continent’s surface wrinkles and pushes up (makes mountain ranges).
What plants would you find in the upper zone of a lake?
Plants here might include bulrushes
and water lilies.
What animals would you find in the upper zone of a lake? (Name at least 3)
You might see small fish, clams, insects, snails, worms, leeches, and frogs.
Does the middle zone of a lake still have light penetration?
Yes
What do the fish in the middle zone of a lake eat?
Phytoplankton are food for the fish that live there.
True of false: No light penetrates the bottom zone of a lake, so no plants grow here.
True
True or false: Food for the fish and other animals that live in the bottom zone of a lake comes
floating down as waste from the plants and animals that live near or on the surface.
True
Where is the Intertidal Zone in an ocean?
Along the shoreline.
T or F: Different ecosystems usually can’t form in intertidal zones, depending on whether the shore is rocky, sandy, or muddy.
False, they can.
What is an estuary?
The area in an ocean where fresh water from rivers and streams mixes with the salt water of the ocean to form brackish water.
Estuaries are rich in mammal life, because of all
the food and shelter available.
False; but it is rich in bird life.
What is a continental shelf?
The continental shelf is a shelf of land that extends out from the edge of a continent below the ocean’s surface.
T or F: The water in a continental shelf is warmer than in the open ocean, and light penetrates almost all the way to the bottom.
True.
Beyond the continental shelves are the deepest parts of the oceans. Much of this water receives no light at all and contains little oxygen. It is also far from shore, so not as many nutrients are available for plants. What is this called?
The Oceanic Zone
