Watershed Unit!

Orca

This cetacean is an apex predator that can become saturated with toxins (such as PCBs) in environments like Puget Sound

Diatoms

These diverse unicellular algae are phytoplankton (photosynthetic) and form the basis of marine food chains.

White sturgeon

This super-sized anadromous fish is equipped with barbels (sensory organs that dangle from its rostrum) and a heterocercal tail.

Copepods

These tiny crustaceans are zooplankton, and avid consumers of diatoms.

American Eel

This catadromous fish from the East Coast of the American continents spawns in the Sargasso Sea.

Acorn Barnacles

These sessile (immobile) crustaceans filter feed on plankton. Some species catch a ride on whales.

Lamprey

This jawless anadromous fish often parasitizes salmon or sturgeon.

Herring

This small filter-feeding marine fish is a favorite food of adult Chinook salmon.

Sockeye Salmon

Colorful salmonid that’s iconic to the PNW.

Chinook Salmon

Main source of food for the Southern Resident pod of killer whales.

Mayfly Nymph

Stream health indicator. Mayflies are very sensitive to pollution, and as such are usually only found at high quality, minimally polluted sites

Chickens

Domesticated birds responsible (partly) for the point source pollution of the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Bacteria

Microbes that absorb oxygen while decomposing dead algae, and thereby create dead zones.

Great Blue Heron

Iconic predatory bird of the estuary, spears young salmon for dinner.

Harbor Seals

This marine mammal inhabits Puget Sound, feeds on fish, and bioaccumulates toxins that can be passed on to Orcas.

Brown Bear

Large land mammal that transports nutrients from the ocean to the land, by catching salmon and leaving part of it in the forest

Coho Salmon

The most athletic salmonid that can leap 8+ feet up waterfalls, tempting bears.

Dungeness Crab

Large crustacean that’s iconic to the Puget Sound.

Horseshoe Crab

Large arthropod - iconic to Chesapeake Bay.

Small Mouth Bass

In the Chesapeake Bay watershed, this fish experiences intersex as a result of non-point source pollutants, especially hormone disruptors.

What is a watershed?

A section of land where rain or snow water drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, estuary, sea or ocean.

Watershed Divide

hills and ridges that form the boundary of the watershed

Do we all live in a watershed?

Yes. Every land surface is exposed to SOME precipitation that goes SOMEWHERE. (Even if it just soaks into the ground and becomes groundwater.)

Estuary

An estuary is a partially enclosed waterbody along the coast that is formed where fresh water meets and mixes with salt water of the ocean.

Delta

A delta is a landform that is formed by river-borne sediments deposited at the river mouth where it joins the sea.

Transpiration

The process by which liquid water taken into a plant from the soil is released into the atmosphere as a gas

Precipitation

Moisture deposited on the earth as dew, rain, or snow

Urbanization

The change of a landscape from a country to city setting

Aquifers

Layers of earth that contain water; underground sources of water

Water table

The top of the water surface in the saturated part of an aquifer

Surface run-off

Water that travels across the land surface to rivers, lakes, and the ocean

Groundwater

Water contained withen an aquifer, i.e soil or rock

Condensation

Changes from a gas to a liquid

Impervious

Describes a material that water cannot pass through

Evaporation

Changes from a liquid to a gas

Permeability

The ease with which water passes through the ground

Saturated

Unable to hold any more water

Evapotranspiration

The transfer of water to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and transpiration by land and plants

Infiltration

Water seeping into the ground

Tributary

A stream that flows into a larger stream or body of water

Hydrologic cycle

The Earth’s water cycle - movement of water from the atmosphere to the earth, it’s distribution on the earth, and it’s return to the atmosphere

Abuses of Watershed

Buildings and pavement are impervious surfaces, preventing water from infiltrating the ground and creating too much surface runoff. Clear-cut hillsides allow erosion which could lead to the siltation of streams.Heavy agricultural wastes send excessive nutrients into the waterways which ultimately produce dead zones in the ocean. Septic tanks can leak and send human wastes into the groundwater.

Bioaccumulation

the build-up of toxins (e.g. PCBs, DDT) in an individual organism’s body over its lifetime due to high exposure and/or an inability to break down or excrete the toxins.

Biomagnification

increasing concentration of toxins higher up in a food chain, due to bioaccumulation combined with decreased biomass at high trophic levels (e.g. apex predators).

Latitude

Indicates how far North or South of the Equator

Longitude

Indicates how far East or West of the Prime meridian

What is Topography?

A topographic map is a detailed and accurate illustration of man-made and natural features on the ground such as roads, railways, power transmission lines, elevations, rivers and lakes.

Contour Lines

Show the height of ground above or below the mean sea level (MSL) either in meters or feet and can be drawn at any desired interval

Contour interval

How many meters or feet of seperation exist between each line