FIELD BIOLOGY WATER REVIEW SHEET
Readings
Chapter 15 Freshwater Ecosystems
The Voyage of Rainfall
The Water Over the Dam
Mussels, Gators, and the Corp
Objectives
1. You should be familiar with the atomic and molecular structure of water and the important resulting properties that result from its atomic nature.
2. You should understand the differences between the two major categories of freshwater ecosystems within a watershed.
3. You should be familiar with the physical characteristics of a lotic ecosystem, including the major abiotic changes that occur from the headwater to mid-stream, and riverine habitats.
4. You should know how limnologist empirically designate different streams within a watershed, and the general stream segment categories that arise from the variable movement of water within a stream.
5. You should be able to compare and contrast the abiotic and biotic structure of fast moving and slow moving water, including the changes in plant and animals as the nutrients change from CPOM to DOM.
6. You should be familiar with the physical characteristics of a lentic ecosystem, including the major abiotic delineations that occur from the surface waters to the water just above the substrate (temperature, oxygen, and light).
7. You should know the many ways in which lentic ecosystems can form and be able to give an example of each.
8. You should be able to compare and contrast the abiotic and biotic structure of the littoral, limnetic, and benthic zones of a lentic ecosystem, as well as an eutrophic and oligotrophic lake system.
9. You should be familiar with the function and particular adaptations for many of the major groups of stream and pond invertebrates, including hirudinea (leeches), pelecypoda (mussels), gastropoda (snails), decapoda (crayfish), coleoptera (beetles), ephemeroptera (mayflies), hemiptera (true bugs), megaloptera (dobsonflies), odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), plecoptera (stoneflies), trichoptera (caddisflies).
10. You should understand the history associated with the damming and other stream engineering on American streams, the reasons which stream engineering occurs, as well as the resulting influences on stream engineering on the abiotic and biotic characteristic of a stream.
11. You should be familiar with the function of beaver, mussel, alligator within a stream ecosystem, their adaptations to the stream habitats, as well as specific human impacts on these organisms and the resultant effect on the ecosystem.
Vocabulary
water protons neutrons electrons
polar covalent bond hydrogen bonding solvent heat capacity
water tension high boiling point low melting point phases of matter
density
lotic ecosystem lentic ecosystem limnology
headwaters first order stream turbulent riverine habitat
turbidity riffles runs pools
meander ox bow lake sandbar heterotrophic food chain
autotrophic food chain CPOM FPOM DOM
shredders collectors grazers scrapers
predators producers consumers primary consumers
secondary consumers drift spiraling raparian zone
driftwood
temp. stratification summer stratification epilimnion mesolimnion
hypolimnion fall overturn water density winter stratification
spring overturn thermocline plankton phytoplankton
zooplankton nekton emergent plants floating plants
benthos oxygen levels photosynthesis respiration
temperature decomposition trophogenic zone compensation level
tropholytic zone light littoral zone limnetic zone
benthic zone eutrophic lake oligotrophic lake hirudinea
segmentation parasitic hermaphroditic pelecypoda
bivalve foot mantle shell
filter feeding gastropoda foot shell
radula grazer gills lungs
decapoda exoskeleton claw walking feet
swimmerets coleoptera elytra plastron
physical gill ephemeroptera biomonitor indicator species
three terminal cerci hemiptera piercing-sucking beak grasping legs
surface respiration megaloptera primitive insects hellgrammite
sickle-like jaws odonata protractile labium caudal gills
plecoptera two terminal cerci indicator species trichoptera
cryptic cases case respiration shelter beaver
Castor canadensis tail castoreum incisors
coecotrophy ecotone edge community erosion
Reclamation Act 1902 reclamation projects agriculture irrigation
hydroelectric power flood control drinking water sediment load
nutrient load seasonal flow temp. stratification erosion
slope deep outlet dams surface outlet dams insect emergence
salmon fish ladders fish hatcheries hatchery fish
mussels glochidia filter feeders pearl industry
button industry crowsfoot artificial propagation river fish
sturgeon paddlefish engineered waterways alligators
succession deforestation flood control erosion
runoff sediment stream channelization transportation
flood control downstream flooding levees nutrients
phosphorous eutrophication algae bloom biomagnification
point source pollution non-point source poll. heavy metal toxins anoxic water