Oceans and Climate
We call the movement of ocean water, ocean ________.
Currents
The hydrosphere represents all ______________ on planet Earth.
Water
What is a watershed?
An area where water drains to one water body (River, Ocean, Lake, etc.)
What does it mean for water to be potable?
It is safe for drinking
What is the hydrosphere?
All the water on Earth including oceans, freshwater sources and moisture in the air and clouds.
Which two factors affect water density in oceans?
Salinity ("saltiness") and temperature
Most of Earth's water is found in...
The Oceans
Water that does not infiltrate the ground, but flows directly into a river, lake or ocean.
Runnoff
What is the main reason excess nitrogen gets into the watershed?
Fertilizer runnoff
What is the Global Water Crisis?
Lack of clean, fresh water
What is upwelling?
When deep ocean currents rise to the surface, bringing up nutrients.
Why is most of the water on Earth inaccessible to humans?
Because most water is either salty (oceans), frozen (ice caps) or underground (groundwater)
Ground that prevents water from percolating down into it is said to be...
Impermeable
What are 4 indicators of water quality? (There are 7)
Temperature, pH, Dissolved Oxygen, Salinity, Turbidity, Nitrates/Phosphates, Bioindicators
Which of the following is nonpoint source pollution?
1. Chemicals released from a factory
2. Car exhaust across the city traffic
3. Fertilizer runoff from a farm
4. A large, leaking landfill
2. Car exhaust across the city traffic
What effect does upwelling have on an ecosystem near the ocean's surface?
Upwelling brings lots of nutrients to the surface so the ecoysystem can support more life and therefore has higher biodiversity.
Put the following in order from most abundant to least: Groundwater/Surface Water/Frozen Water (Ice Caps and Glaciers)
1. Frozen water (77%), 2. Ground water (22%), 3. Surface Water (1%)
What are tributaries?
Smaller rivers or streams that flow into a larger one.
What role to bioindicators play in determining water quality?
Bioindicators are living things who's absence or presence in water can tell us the overall quality of the water.
What is the relationship between water temperature and dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide?
The lower the temperature, the higher the dissolved gasses and the higher the temperature the lower the dissolved gasses
How do ocean currents affect global climate?
Ocean currents act as a heat conveyor belt, transporting warm water to the poles (and warming the air) and cold water to the equator (and cooling the air).
Only about __ % of ALL water on Earth is readily available for human use.
>0.05% of ALL water is readily available (fresh surface water)
Trace a molecule of water from the Atlantic Ocean to to the clouds, to Raleigh and back to the Atlantic using the appropriate terms.
Water evaporates from the Atlantic, rises and condenses into clouds, falls as precipitation, hits the Earth's surface and infiltrates the ground or runs off back into tributaries that lead to the Neuse River which flows back down to the Atlantic Ocean.
What is eutrophication and how does it happen?
It is an excess of nutrients, usually due to fertilizer runoff, which causes an overgrowth of producers (mostly algae) and a reduction in animal life due to lack of oxygen.
What effect does having a large area of impermeable surfaces have on the watershed?
It creates more runoff which causes pollution to be delivered directly into the watershed, rather than being filtered by permeable surfaces.