Limno Midterm

Limnology Midterm Study Guide

Terms:

-Limnology - Interactions between aquatic organisms and their lotic and lentic environment

-Lotic system - High velocity, unidirectional water movement

-Lentic System - Low velocity circulation

-% of water tied up in oceans – 97%

-Precipitation – Pg/ tiny condensation particles grow too large

-Vadose Zone - variably saturated zone between ground surface and ground water

-Discharge – Q/volumetric flow rate of water that is transported/streamflow

-Groundwater – S/water that exists in saturated zone beneath land surface

-Evapotranspiration – Et/evaporation into the atmosphere from the soil surface, evaporation from the capillary fringe of the groundwater table, and evaporation from water bodies on land

-Infiltration - Precipitation or water soaks into subsurface soils and moves into rocks through cracks and pore spaces

-Depression storage – Sd/low points in undulation terrain that store precipitation that would otherwise become runoff

-Interception storage – Si/storage of water above the surface, mostly in vegetation

-Highest % of Liquid Inland Water - Groundwater

-Watershed - land area that drains rain to some arbitrarily specific point

- Ephemeral Stream - typically dry most of the year

-Intermittent Stream - typically flows most of the year

-Perennial Stream - typically flows all year long

-Major Rivers on earth - Amazon, Parana, Nile, River Congo/Zaire, Mississippi, Yenisei, Ob, Lena, Antze, Yur

-Count of lakes – Glacial (4 million), Fluvial (0.5 million), Tectonic (0.25 million), Coastal (40,000), Volcanic (1,000), Solution (<1,000)

- Glacial Lake example – Great Lakes

-Subtypes of glacial lakes - Kettle, Proglacial, Scour

-Fluvial Lakes example – Oxbow, Chicot Lake

-Tectonic Lakes example – Lake Okeechobee

-Subtypes of tectonic lakes – Uplift, Graben/Rift, Earthquake

-Coastal Lakes example – Lake Pontchartrain

-Volcanic Lakes example – Crater Lake

-Solution Lakes example – Bottomless lakes in NM

-Retention time – How long water stays in the lake on average

-Shoreline development – Shape of a lake relative to that of a circle of the same area

-Morphoedaphic Index – A variable developed as a measure of the potential fishery yield from a lake

-Nitrogen fixation – Nitrogen entering the lake from the atmosphere by diffusion

-Denitrification – Multistage reduction of oxygenated forms of nitrogen, eventually leads to nitrogen returning to the atmosphere

-Cause of efflux loads of phosphorous – Algal blooms

-Most common limiting nutrient in freshwater systems - Phosphorus

Concepts:

-Conceptual model of ecosystem – Draw it

-Recharge or age of water (see graph in hydrologic cycle pp)

-Hydrologic Cycle – Evapotranspiration -> Precipitation -> interception storage -> depression storage -> infiltration -> groundwater storage -> vadose zone -> discharge

-Horton Stream Order – 1^st = headwaters and unbranched tributaries, 2^nd = lies below confluence of two or more 1st order streams, 3^rd lies below confluence of two or more 2^nd order streams, etc.

-Fluvial Geomorphology – Erosion -> Sediment transport -> Deposition

-River Classifications – Straight, Meandering, Braided, Anatomosing

-Major rivers in Arkansas and their tributaries. - White river - Black, buffalo, kings, crooked creek, little red | Arkansas River - Piney creek, mulberry, illinois bayou, cadron creek, petit jean, fourche la fave | Ouachita - Little missouri, caddo, saline | Red | St. Francis

-Seasonal Variation in plankton – Dormant -> Bloom -> Stratification -> Decline

-Migration of plankton – Diel Vertical migration in response to light

-Phosphorous in organisms – Component of nucleotides (Serves of energy storage within cells, linked forms DNA and RNA), found in bones, found in phospholipid bilayer,

-Natural vs anthropogenic loading of Phosphorous – Natural is from rocks, anthropogenic is from agricultural runoff

- Major Macronutrients Common in the Atmosphere – Nitrogen, Oxygen, Argon, Carbon Dioxide

-Importance of Nitrogen - requisite for amino acids and nucleic acids,
thus essential for metabolic pathways

- Anthropogenic Effects on Nitrogen Cycle – Atmospheric deposition of N (Acid rain precursor) or agricultural/urban/sewage treatment runoff

-Zones of lentic habitat – Temperature zones = Epilimnion, metalimnion, hypolimnion (Easy Money Hecke) | Light zones = Photic or euphotic, Aphotic or profundal