Water Quality & Ecology
Cold water typically holds more of this gas than warm water.
What is dissolved oxygen?
Fish use these thin, oxygen-absorbing organs to breathe underwater.
What are gills?
This U.S. law protects the quality of rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
What is the Clean Water Act?
This greenhouse gas dissolves in oceans and forms carbonic acid.
What is carbon dioxide?
These three words summarize the core actions of sustainability.
What are reduce, reuse, recycle?
What is turbidity?
This process describes pollutants increasing in concentration as they move up the food chain.
What is biomagnification?
The group responsible for enforcing most national environmental laws.
What is the EPA?
Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus entering waterways from farms and lawns are known as this type of pollution.
What is nonpoint source pollution?
Products made to break down naturally over time are called this.
What is biodegradable?
Excess phosphorus in freshwater systems often leads to this process, which can trigger harmful algal blooms.
What is eutrophication?
These tiny organisms form the base of many aquatic food webs.
What are plankton?
The legal framework that protects threatened and endangered species in the U.S.
What is the Endangered Species Act?
When air pollutants like sulfur dioxide mix with water vapor in the atmosphere, they can form this harmful precipitation.
What is acid rain?
This type of energy comes from naturally replenished sources such as wind, sunlight, or moving water.
What is renewable energy?
When oxygen levels drop too low to support most aquatic life, the water body is in this condition.
What is hypoxia?
These organisms, often used in stream health assessments, spend part of their life cycle underwater and respond quickly to pollution.
What are aquatic macroinvertebrates?
What is the Safe Drinking Water Act?
This type of pollutant, found in products like shampoos and detergents, disrupts hormones and can cause reproductive issues in aquatic organisms.
What are endocrine disruptors?
What is an ecological footprint?
This process occurs when deep, nutrient-rich water rises to the surface, increasing biological productivity but sometimes reducing oxygen in deeper layers.
What is upwelling?
Species that rely on clean, well-oxygenated, fast-moving water are classified as this type of water-quality-sensitive organism.
What are indicator species?
This international agreement aims to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.
What is the Paris Agreement?
Smog is formed when nitrogen oxides react with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the presence of this environmental factor.
What is sunlight (UV radiation)?
This sustainability strategy designs products so materials can be reused, repaired, or recycled in a closed-loop system.
What is a circular economy?