WATER TEST STUDY 2O13
1. What are some of the human uses of lakes, oceans, and
creeks?
Swimming,
recreation, and fishing
2. Do salt lakes support a lot of biodiversity?
No, not many
organisms can survive in the high salinity
3. What is a human use of aquifers?
Drinking water
4. What is a niche?
Organisms role in
the environment
5. What is a habitat?
Where an organism
lives
6. Describe each of the 5 habitats that were listed on the
Water Quality Day 1 handout. Include the
types of organisms that are found in each habitat.
Surface film – where water meets the air, air breathing
organisms that may be found on the surface of the water
Open water – where rooted plants do not reach the surface of
the water, large fish, turtles, birds, and plankton
Bottom – rocks, sand, or mud, bacteria, snails, worms,
sponge, crayfish, and larvae of some aquatic insects
Water’s edge – where water meets the land, many small
organisms
Human-made channels – straight box like ditches that have
been dug to move water more efficiently, do not offer wildlife the variety of
habitats that natural settings do
7. List and describe each of the five feeding groups that
were on the Water Quality Day 1 handout.
Collectors – feed on decomposing organic matter
Scrapers – graze on algae
Shredders – break large pieces of dead plant material into
smaller pieces. They get their nutrition
from the organisms that coat the plants
Predators – capture other organsims
Parasites – feed off other organisms
8. What is an indicator species?
A species that
indicates the quality of a particular ecosystem
9. Define polluted water.
Water where
contaminant levels are high enough to affect the life that depends on it
10. What is the synergistic effect?
When the
combined effect of two substances is more than the sum of their parts
11. What is DO?
Dissolved oxygen
12. Why is DO important in aquatic ecosystems?
Many aquatic
organisms breathe the oxygen that is dissolved in the water.
13. What are the factors that affect the levels of DO in an
aquatic ecosystem?
Fast flowing
water, rocks, waterfalls-increase DO
Standing or
slow moving bodies of water have lower DO
Colder water
can hold more DO than warmer water
14. What is pH?
A measurement
of a solutions acidity/alkalinity
15. What is the pH of a healthy river?
6.5 – 8.2
16. What happens if the pH gets to low or high in an aquatic
ecosystem?
Affects the biodiversity
17. What are buffers?
Substances that
prevent large changes in pH
18. What is the difference between hard and soft water? What type of water do
organisms
prefer?
Hard water has
high levels of certain minerals (calcium and magnesium) than soft
water. Organisms prefer hard water.
19. What are two places that nitrate/nitrite pollutants come
from?
Fertilizer
runoff and sewage
20. What are three places that phosphate pollutants come
from?
Human/animal
wastes, detergents, industrial wastes
21. Explain how too much of nitrates/nitrites and phosphates
negatively affect water quality.
Elevated levels
of these substances can cause algae blooms.
Excess algae can lower
The DO of aquatic
ecosystems
22. Generally speaking, does turbid water promote biological
diversity? Explain why?
No, it makes it
difficult for organisms to breathe the DO in the water
23. What processes can increase turbidity?
Anything that
causes soil erosion
24. Define turbidity.
Amount of solid
particles suspended in water
25. Explain the purpose of each of the following
acts/agencies and how they
promote better
water quality:
human health
and the environment.
- Superfund._Technically called CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response and
Liability
Act of 1980). Nationwide program that
addresses major environmental
threats
from hazardous wastes. Makes polluters
pay for cleaning up the sites that
they
contaminated
- Clean Water Act
Passed by
congress in 1972 and strengthened in 1977 developed several programs
to control water pollution
- Safe Drinking Water Act
(SDWA) –
passed in 1974 and revised in the eighties and nineties. Requires EPA
to regulate
certain substances that may be present in water supply and may
threaten
human health. Sets legal limits for
substances in public water supply,
determines
testing schedules, and determines acceptable treatment approaches.
26. What is a MCL?
Maximum Contaminant Level -legal limit of pollutant that is
allowed in drinking water. MCL is based
on the ability to remove the pollutant from the water using the best available
technology.
27. Explain how water temperature can affect aquatic
organisms.
Most species can
only tolerate a narrow range of temperatures
28. What percentage of the earth’s water supply is salt
water?
97%
29. What percentage of the earth’s water supply is available
for human needs?
Less than 1%
30. What percentage of the earth’s water supply is frozen as
ice?
2%
31. What percentage of the earth is covered by water?
70%
32. List in order (from greatest to least) the activities
that a typical family of four uses
water for.
33. What is a wetland?
Ecosystems with soil that is saturated
with water.
34. List and describe the different types of
wetlands.
a.
Swamps – a wetland covered by water either permanently or intermittently and
dominated by woody vegetation
b.
Freshwater marshes – an area of soft, wet land that has many grasses and other
plants
c. Salt
marshes – low coastal grassland that is often covered by the tide.
d. Bogs
– an area having a wet, spongy, acidic ground composed mostly of sphagnum moss
and peat. Bogs have low nitrogen soils
and carnivorous plants
35. Explain the benefits of wetlands.
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