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24 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Hydrologic Cycle |
driven by solar radiation, surface waters evaporate to form clouds, which condense to form precipiation |
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Evaporation |
the water turns from liquid to gaseous phase as a result of input of energy |
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Transpiration |
the manner in which water leaves the leaves and stems of plants and trees |
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Infiltration |
the manner in which the water percolates into the ground from the surface to become groundwater |
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Surface Runoff |
the precipitation which does not infiltrate, but moves along the surface to collect in streams and rivers |
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Interception |
the precipitation that falls onto trees and plants and is used forthwith, or is evaporated without ever having reached the ground |
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Surface Tension |
the cohesion at the surface due to hydrogen bonds, allows some organisms to walk on water |
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Epilimnion |
the warm, less dense layer of water at the top of a resonably deep lake in temperate climate |
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Hypolimnion |
the deeper layer of cold, denser water, toward the bottom of the lake |
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Thermocline/ Metalimnion |
the region between the epilimnion and the hypolimnion in which the temperature changes rapidly |
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Stratification |
In Summer prevents mixing between upper (warmer) and lower (colder) waters |
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Fall and Spring Lake Overturn |
In Fall, cool air moving across lake cools surface waters, and they sink, warmer water moves to the surface, nutrients are circulated, and the waters move until the lake has reached a uniform temperature. In Spring, the same effect is caused by the warming of the surface waters. |
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Phytoplankton |
vegetative plankton, that may bloom during the fall overturn |
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Anoxia/ Hypoxia |
depletion of oxygen by decomposers in the bottom of deep, well stratified lakes, also occurs in the frozen lakes, where no exchange with the atmosphere and no photosynthesis occurs Dead Zones, especially in bays (Chesapeake, Gulf of Mexico) |
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Decomposition/ Decomposers |
bacterias and fungi that eat the dead animals and plants and cause breakdown of the organic matter |
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Aciditity |
concentration of free H+ ions pH= -log [H+] Lower pH means more acidic Higher pH means more caustic (basic) When [H+]=[OH-] pH neutral=7 pH of natural waters: 2-12 pH |
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Bicarbonate Buffering |
CO2 reacts with water to form carbonic acid, the bicarbonate ion, tends to keep the pH stable CaCO3 (calcium carbonate AKA lime) is sometimes added to lakes to help neutralize the acidity and to stabalize the pH |
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Oceanic Conveyor Belt |
AKA Thermohaline Circulation Warm currents move seawater towards poles, winds cool surface waters, causing them to sink, and evaporating them, increasing salinity. These now dense surface waters sink, and travel to deep ocean crevasses, on to the equator, where they upwell the cool, oxygen rich water. |
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Equitorial and Coastal Upwellings |
At the equator, the pull of the Coriolis effect results in upwelling of cold currents In the western coasts of continents, coriolis effect pulls water away from the coast, resulting in upwelling of deeper colder waters |
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Spring and Neap Tides |
Spring Tides are the highest tides of the months and occur when the sun and moon are aligned (full and new moon) Neap Tides are the lowest tide of the month and occur when the sun and moon are a right angles to one another ( half waxing and half waning moon) |
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Intertidal Zone |
the area between low and high tides |
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Estuary |
the place where freshwater from rivers flows into the salt water of the ocean ex. Delaware Bay, Barnegat Bay |
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Tidal Overmixing |
when high tide brings a wedge of salt upriver |
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Salt Line |
marks how far upriver salt water has been brought by the tide |