Watersheds 101
This force of nature is what causes water to always flow from high ground to low ground within a watershed.
Gravity
This common Maryland bird is the primary threat to young wild rice because it eats the tender shoots and pulls up the roots.
Canada goose
Wild rice provides this "service" to the river by holding mud in place and keeping the water clear.
Filtering
This is the term for a "living" factor in an ecosystem, like a goose or a plant.
Biotic
This is what a wild rice seed it like, because it embeds itself into the mud just like this object embeds itself onto a board.
Dart
This is the specific "home" within the watershed that provides an animal with everything it needs to survive.
Habitat
With the development of exclosures, Maryland scientists observed a(n) __________________ in wild rice growth due to the absence of Canada geese.
Increase
If a rice patch is destroyed before it can drop these, it will not grow back the following year.
Seeds
This is a diagram that shows the complex network of "who eats whom" in an estuary, starting with producers like wild rice.
Food web
This is the ideal time of year for planting wild rice in the Maryland region so that the seeds have the full summer "growing season" to mature.
Spring
This is a smaller stream that empties into a larger river.
Tributary
Areas in the Bay with little to no dissolved oxygen, where fish and crabs cannot survive, are known by this "deadly" name.
Dead zones
Because wild rice is a producer and the Canada goose consumes it, the goose would be classified as a _________________________ a food chain.
Primary consumer
This is the maximum number of individuals of a species (like geese) that an ecosystem can support without being damaged.
Carrying capacity
This is the name of the long, stiff, needle-like bristle that extends from the tip of a wild rice seed; it helps the seed anchor itself securely into the mud.
Awn
Name one of the major rivers connected within the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
Potomac, James, Susquehanna, Rappahannock, etc.
This is the overproduction of a green aquatic plant, which clouds the water and makes it hard for sunlight to reach the plants at the bottom.
Algal bloom
This specific environmental problem occurs in the Chesapeake Bay when resident bird populations consume young wild rice plants faster than they can reproduce, often leading to total habitat loss.
Overgrazing
This river, which flows through Prince George's County and Washington D.C. before joining the Potomac, is the focus of major restoration efforts to reduce "trash " and urban runoff in Maryland.
Anacostia
This process occurs when a wild rice seed finally "wakes up" from its dormant state, cracks open its casing, and begins to grow its first root and shoot (these were the seeds with the little white root).
Germination
This is the term for a species that is not native to the Bay and causes harm to the local food web, like the Blue Catfish.
Invasive species
Most of the nitrogen entering the Chesapeake Bay comes from these three main human sources: sewage, car exhaust, and ___________.
Fertilizer
As muddy water flows through a stand of wild rice, the stalks create ______________, slowing the water down.
Friction
Wild rice is very sensitive to this abiotic factor; if the water becomes too salty due to a drought, the plants may fail to grow.
Salinity
Before planting, seeds are often kept in these cold conditions to mimic winter, a process that "wakes up" the seed so it’s ready to grow.
Stratification