Watersheds
An area of land where all water drains to a common body of water.
What is a Watershed?
True or False: 90% of global trade products move across the ocean by ship.
What is True?
Runoff from lawns and farms that causes excessive algae growth in the ocean.
What is Fertilizer?
Pollution that comes from "everywhere" rather than a single identifiable pipe.
What is Nonpoint Source Pollution?
The phenomenon where rising temperatures cause coral to turn white and die.
What is Coral Bleaching?
Water that is under the earths surface.
Besides food/trade, this is a major way coastal businesses (like hotels) rely on the ocean.
What is Tourism (or Recreation)?
An area with so little oxygen that most marine life cannot survive there.
What is a Dead Zone?
This is the specific type of pollution you can "point" to, like a single discharge pipe.
What is Point Source Pollution?
A farmer switches to "organic" methods with no chemical fertilizers. Is this a beneficial or harmful influence on the watershed?
What is Beneficial?
A factory dumping chemicals directly into a river through a single pipe is this "identifiable" type of pollution.
What is Point Source pollution?
Humans extract this fossil fuel from the ocean floor for energy.
What is Crude Oil?
The practice of taking too many fish, leading to potential species extinction.
What is Overfishing?
This occurs when rainfall carries oil, pet waste, and litter into storm drains.
What is Surface Runoff?
This term describes the "unintended" catch of non-target species like dolphins or turtles in fishing nets.
What is Bycatch?
Underground layers of rock or sediment that hold and transmit groundwater
What is an Aquifer?
These microscopic organisms provide over 50% of the Earth's oxygen.
What are Phytoplankton?
Excessive nutrients from fertilizer can cause this "bloom" of green organisms that chokes out oxygen in a lake.
What is an Algal Bloom or Eutrophication?
The chemical process that happens when the ocean absorbs excess CO2, harming shell-building organisms.
What is Ocean Acidification?
Humans build these using sunken ships or concrete blocks to provide a "foundation" for new coral and fish habitats.
What are Artificial Reefs?
If a city pumps more water out of a well than rain puts back in, this will happen.
What is Water Table Decline?
The ocean plays a massive role in regulating the Earth's "this," by absorbing heat and moving it around via currents
What is Climate/Temperature, Weather?
This type of coastal activity (like building a boat dock) has a negative effect on fish habitats.
What is Construction (or Habitat Destruction)?
This is the most effective way for a suburban homeowner to reduce nonpoint source pollution.
What is Limiting the use of pesticides and fertilizers?
When humans use more energy to pump a gallon of water, it usually means the water table has done this.
What is Declined (or dropped)?