Aquatic Ecology

Sea level rise and overpumping of wells can cause ___, a problem in Florida’s aquifers that can threaten our freshwater supply. Water conservation, desalination, and careful consideration of wellfield sites can help prevent this issue.

Saltwater Intrusion

The hydrologic cycle consists of five processes: condensation, precipitation, runoff, evapotranspiration, and ___.

Infiltration

A life supporting area that provides a buffer between upland and aquatic habitat is referred to as a/an ___. Often, these areas provide food, cover, water, and safe passage for wildlife.

Riparian Habitat

An estuary is a unique aquatic system where a freshwater river releases into a body of salt water creating brackish water. Estuaries can filter out pollutants through marsh plants, oyster reefs, or wetlands. They also serve as important nursery areas for many fish, bird, and invertebrate species. ___ is one Estuary in Florida.

Rose Bay

A ___ is where acidic groundwater has cracked the limestone that forms much of Florida, and water that normally flows through the underground network of limestone tunnels now breaches the surface.

Spring

Altering the landscape with dams, roads, development, and transportation infrastructure can cause ___, which creates pockets of separate habitat instead of larger contiguous systems.

Fragmentation

Three physical, chemical, or biological factors that impact a watershed are ___, ___, and ___.

Geology, land orientation, and shape + slope

If you are in an area and notice spongy or saturated conditions, soil that drains poorly, hydrophytic plants, and other organisms that can live in very wet conditions, you are standing in a ___.

Wetland

The difference between marine and estuarine wetlands is ___.

Marine is undiluted salt water with open coast, and estuarine is brackish water, usually partially enclosed by land

___ are important aquatic habitats in Florida that are found along the Atlantic Coast to St. Augustine and along the Gulf of Mexico to Cedar Key. They are dominated by woody plants that have thick tangled roots and can tolerate high salinities.

Mangrove swamps

Three ecosystem services provided by wetlands are ___, ___, and ___.

Denitrification, erosion control, and carbon sequestration

In many coastal wetlands, mosquito ___ were constructed to control mosquito populations. Within these areas, water levels can be controlled to prevent growth of mosquito larvae, or to facilitate mosquito control techniques such as spraying. Many of these areas are no longer necessary, and are being reconnected to the surrounding marshes to restore habitat and ecosystem services.

Impoundments

Water flowing over the land during and immediately after a rainstorm is called ___.

Stormwater runoff

The difference between point and non-point source pollution is ___.

Point source pollution flows from a specific location. Non-point source pollution does not come from a single discharge point.

Waste heat, or thermal pollution, occurs when industries use water for cooling, and release water that is much warmer than the ambient water temperature. This can provide warm-water refuges for sensitive aquatic animals such as ___.

Manatees

To protect water quality and water quantity from degradation, many industries and management agencies practice BMPs, which stands for ___.

Best Management Practices

___ is a measure of hydrogen concentration in a liquid, and is measured on a logarithmic scale. This water quality parameter can be lethal to aquatic species if it is too high, or too low.

pH

When scientists measure the clarity of the water, it is referred to as ___. Higher levels indicate more suspended particulate matter in the water column.

Turbidity

A benthic organism lives ___.

At the bottom of an aquatic habitat

Many benthic organisms are sensitive to poor water quality or toxins. The presence and health of benthic invertebrates can tell us about the environmental conditions within an area, making them good ___ species.

Indicator

The ___ zone along the coast is exposed to air during low tide, but underwater during high tide.

Intertidal

___ prevents mangroves from flourishing in freshwater systems in Florida.

Competition

Two benefits of recycled wastewater, or reuse water, are ___ and ___.

Reducing discharge of pollutants into waterways and saving on fertilizer and water for landscaping or agriculture.

___ habitats are found in protected, shallow, low-energy coasts. They can tolerate salt, tides, flooding, remove pollutants, provide habitat and nursery grounds, create the base of the food chain, and are some of the most productive ecosystems in the world.

Salt marsh

___ are a type of submerged aquatic vegetation in Florida found in marine and brackish waters. They rely on low turbidity so sunlight can reach them underwater for photosynthesis.

Seagrasses

___ means requiring oxygen.

Aerobic

Aesthetic means ___.

Appealing to the senses or pertaining to art and beauty.

A(n) ___ is an underground layer of porous or fractured rock or soil that carries or holds water. Limestone bedrock is the main geologic formation in Florida’s ___s.

Aquifer

An artesian aquifer/well is created when ___.

A well is drilled into a confined aquifer whose pressure is large enough to force the water onto the land surface.

A bottom dwelling organism is ___.

Benthic

Brackish water in created when ___.

Fresh and salt waters mix.

___ are wetlands found along the coastline containing salt or brackish water.

Coast wetlands

A confined aquifer consists of ___.

Subsurface water which is restricted to a particular rock unit by an impermeable rock or soil layer above it.

___ is the reduction of nitrate ions to nitrogen oxide or di-nitrogen gas through several intermediate steps.

Denitrification

Detritus is ___.

Tiny pieces of decomposing plant or animal matter

___, measured in cubic meters per second, is the amount of water flowing past a given point in a stream or river.

Discharge

A divide is ___.

The point where two watersheds connect or come together.

Something that is ___ lasts a very short time.

Ephemeral

Ephemeral flow generally occurs ___.

During or shortly after extreme precipitation or snowmelt conditions.

A(n) ___ is a surface area where fresh and salt waters mix, like where a river joins the ocean.

Estuary

Evaporation is ___.

The process whereby water from land areas, bodies of water, and all other “moist” surfaces is absorbed into the atmosphere as a vapor.

___ is the combined processes of evaporation and transpiration. It can be defined as the sum of water used by vegetation and water lost by evaporation.

Evapotranspiration

A floodplain is ___.

a(n) area of the land along a river (riparian zone) that floods.

___ occurs when something is broken apart into small parts or incomplete areas.

Fragmentation

Groundwater can be defined as ___.

All water beneath the surface of the ground, whether in defined channels or not.

A(n) ___ is the place where a plant or animal naturally grows or lives. A(n) ___ must contain four elements: food, water, shelter, and space.

Habitat

A halophyte is a(n) ___.

Salt-tolerant plant

___ means non-woody.

Herbaceous

The hydrologic cycle, briefly, is ___.

The movement or exchange of water between the atmosphere and the earth.

___ are water-loving plants.

Hydrophytes

Infiltration occurs when ___.

Water moves into the soil.

The ___, usually measured in inches, is the quantity of water that will enter a particular soil per unit of time (usually one hour)

Infiltration rate

Inorganic pollution consists of ___.

Suspended or dissolved solids

The natural outer covering of an animal or plant (e.g. skin, seed coat, shell) is called a(n) ___.

Integument

Intermittent means ___.

Not continuous or coming and going at intervals

___ generally occurs only during the wet season.

Intermittent flow

Leaching can be described as ___.

The movement of dissolved particles through soil by water.

___ cannot be traced to a specific source or point of entry.

Nonpoint source pollution

Organic pollution come from ___.

The decomposition of living materials and their byproducts or fertilizers like plant residue, human sewage, and pet waste.

___ means year-round.

Perennial

Perennial indicates ___.

Year-round flow in a well-defined channel.

___ is the ability of rock or soil to transmit water.

Permeability

Percolation is ___.

The slow seepage of water into and through the ground

The process by which plants use energy from the sun to make food and oxygen is called ___.

Photosynthesis

Point source pollution ___ be traced to a particular source or point of entry.

Can

The spaces between rock or soil particles which can hold air or water determine a material’s ___.

Porosity

Porosity is expressed as ___.

A percentage of the total volume

The ___ is the level to which water will rise, in cased wells or other cased excavations into aquifers, measured as feet above mean sea level.

Potentiometric water level/surface

A predator is an organism that ___.

Feeds on other organisms

___ refers generally to the inflow to an aquifer and/or groundwater.

Recharge

A recharge area is ___.

An area which water can travel miles entering that is connected with the underground aquifer(s) by a highly porous soil or rock layer

___ are developed in one place from underlying rock formations and surface plant cover and are closely related to the parent material from which they formed.

Residual soils

The Riparian habitat is ___.

The natural vegetation adjacent to a river or the portion of the riparian zone that provides an organism with its food, water, shelter, and space.

The area along the entire length of both sides of a river that is affected by the river and serves as habitat for both wildlife and vegetation is called the ___.

Riparian zone

Runoff water ___.

Drains from the surface of the land into a body of water

___ occurs when freshwater is withdrawn allowing salt water to move into the underground storage areas (aquifers). Because salt water underlies freshwater in Florida's coastal areas, as the freshwater volume is reduced, salt water moves upward. The salt-freshwater interface along the coast is affected by this through water channels where the channel bottom is below sea level (and particularly when freshwater levels are low).

Saltwater intrusion

Scouring relates to the ___.

Gradual or rapid erosion of particles from the channel walls or bed caused by a concentration of a current.

A(n) ___ is an area where the surface of the land has subsided or collapsed as a result of the underlying limestone being dissolved.

Sinkhole

Slope (% or a/b) refers to the ___.

Degree of deviation from the horizontal.

The higher the slope percent/fraction the ___ the slope.

Steeper

___ is all water on the surface of the ground, including water in natural and man-made boundaries as well as diffused water.

Surface water

Suspended particulate matter is ___.

Fine soil or mineral particles that are prevented from settling out by the movement of the water which creates turbidity.

___ is the clearness of water.

Turbidity

Thermal pollution (“waste heat”) is a result of ___.

Water being raised above its naturally occurring temperature.

___ is any pollution containing hazardous wastes or heavy metals.

Toxic pollution

Transpiration is ___.

The process whereby water vapor is emitted or passes through plant leaf \n surfaces and is diffused into the atmosphere; more simply, plants give up moisture \n through their leaves.

A soil moved by gravity, wind, or air is a(n) ___ soil.

Transported

A tributary is a(n) ___.

Stream, creek or river that flows into a larger water system.

The ___ is subsurface water which is not restricted from flowing into other \n rock units. In this type of aquifer, the water table is under atmospheric pressure.

Unconfined aquifer

Velocity is ___.

Rate of stream flow measured in meters per second.

___ refers to spring and can mean fresh or new.

Vernal

The water table is ___.

The water level or surface above an impermeable layer of soil or rock which can be very near the surface of the ground or many feet below it.

A(n) ___ is the whole area which drains into a particular lake or river.

Watershed

Wetlands are ___.

Swamps, marshes, bogs, wet meadows, and tidal water stands on the ground surface.

A manatee can go without oxygen for twenty minutes. However, after that twenty minutes, it must come back to the surface to breathe, meaning manatees are ___.

Aerobic

Many Floridians choose to live on a lake for the views, or the ___.

Aesthetics

The Biscayne ___ underlies an area of about 3,000 square miles in Dade and Broward counties and the southern part of Palm Beach County. It is nonartesian and gets most of its recharge from local rainfall and by canals from water conservation areas.

Aquifer

Drilling into the Florida Aquifer in Duval County will cause water to quickly gush to the surface and fill a well. This is because the aquifer is ___.

Artesian

A scientist wants to see how tolerant a river ecosystem is to pollution before a new factory is built right next to it. He finds leeches and midge fly larvae, both ___ organisms. He concludes the water quality is poor and pollution-tolerant.

Benthic

Rose Bay is an estuary that is filled with ___ water.

Brackish