WATER QUALITY
This substance is essential for aquatic organisms and is measured to determine the health of a waterway.
What is dissolved oxygen?
This occurs when fertilizer runoff adds excess nutrients to water, causing excessive algae growth.
What is eutrophication?
This occurs when rainwater carries pollutants from land into lakes, rivers, or other waterways.
What is runoff?
Zebra mussels were first detected in the Hudson River in this year.
What is 1991?
A population can grow exponentially when this is unlimited.
What are resources?
These plants are called SAVs and grow underwater.
What is submerged aquatic vegetation?
This type of organism can grow rapidly when excess nutrients enter the water.
What are algae?
Farmers may use these two products that can enter waterways through runoff.
What are fertilizers and pesticides?
Zebra mussels filter large amounts of this microscopic food source from the water.
What is phytoplankton?
This describes the maximum population size an environment can support.
What is carrying capacity?
When bacteria from sewage use oxygen in the water, this can cause aquatic organisms to die from lack of oxygen.
What is oxygen depletion?
When an algal bloom blocks sunlight, these underwater plants cannot photosynthesize normally.
What are SAVs (submerged aquatic vegetation)?
This government agency helps regulate the amount and types of chemicals that factories and farms can use.
What is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)?
The rapid increase of zebra mussels could have been caused by an abundant supply of this food source.
What is phytoplankton?
During an algal bloom, the carrying capacity of an aquatic environment may do this.
What is decrease?
Scientists can use organisms in the environment to determine how healthy a waterway is.
What are indicator organisms?
An algal bloom can cause this to decrease, making it difficult for fish and other aquatic organisms to survive.
What is dissolved oxygen?
Trash thrown on the ground can eventually enter waterways through these drainage systems.
What are storm drains?
After zebra mussels were introduced, phytoplankton populations did this.
What is decreased/plummeted?
If resources are unlimited, a population may experience this type of growth.
What is exponential growth?
Name two factors that can affect dissolved oxygen levels in water.
What are temperature and the concentration of plants and animals?
Give three effects of an algal bloom.
Explain how pollution from a parking lot could eventually reach a river during rainfall.
Rainwater can carry pollutants downhill through runoff until they reach the river.
Explain how zebra mussels can affect the food web of a river.
Zebra mussels remove large amounts of plankton, reducing an important food source and affecting fish and other organisms throughout the food web.
Why might the population of aquatic species decrease during an algal bloom?
The algal bloom can reduce dissolved oxygen and block sunlight, making the environment less suitable for aquatic organisms.