Chapter 4: The Great
Lakes: The U.S. &
Canada’s Freshwater
Treasure
1
How can people best use & protect
Earth’s freshwater ecosystems?
2
A large mass of ice found near Earth’s
poles or in high cold mountain valleys
is called what?
GLACIER
(CONTINENTAL & ALPINE GLACIER)
3
“DID YOU KNOW
THERE HAS
BEEN THREE ICE
AGES?”
Much of North
America was covered
in ice 20,000 years
ago which is
considered a what?
4
5
A community of all the loving things in
an area & the environment in which
they live (similar to a biome) is called a
what?
ECOSYSTEM
6
Made up of water that is not salty;
this term is also used to describe
creatures that live in this kind of
water. This referrers to what?
FRESHWATER
THE GREAT LAKES MAKE UP THE WORLD’S
LARGEST FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEM
ALMOST 21%
7
Where is the biggest area of fresh water
in the world?
Lake Michigan, is the only one of
the Great Lakes to be entirely in
the U.S. territory.
THE GREAT LAKES
HURON
ONTARIO
MICHIGAN
ERIE
SUPERIOR
9
What do you know about the
Great Lakes?
• 8 U.S. States border the Great Lakes.
• Almost 21% of all the fresh water in
the world is found in the Great Lakes.
• There are over 3,500 different species
within the Great Lakes.
• They are also known as “America’s
Inland Seas”.
• They contain 23 quadrillion liters of
water.
10
A geographic area that includes all of
the land & waterways that drain into a
body of water; sometimes called a
drainage basin or what?
WATERSHED
11
The triangle-shaped deposit of sand &
sediment that occurs where a river
flows into an ocean is called what?
DELTA
12
All of the feeding relationships within
an ecosystem where each living thing
provides food energy to other living
things within that ecosystem is called a
what?
FOOD
WEB
13
Damage to the natural environment
caused by harmful substances is known
as what?
POLLUTION
14
A series of plants & animals, each of
which depends on the one below it for
food and is usually part of a food web;
is called what?
15
Water pollution from a single place,
such as a discharge pipe at a plant that
treats sewage is called what?
POINT-SOURCE
POLLUTION
16
A chemical or substance that is
poisonous to humans or other living
things is what?
17
Pollution that does not come from a
single location, but rather from many
sources such as runoff from farms is
what?
NON-POINT SOURCE
POLLUTION
18
Something that pollutes, or damages,
air, soil, or water is called what?
POLLUTANTS
Bits of soil left in a place by moving
water is what?
SEDIMENT
19
Water from rainfall that is not absorbed
into the soil & instead flows into
streams & lakes is what?
RUNOFF
20
Nonnative plants and animals that
invade an ecosystem & challenge it is
what?
INVASIVE SPECIES
21
Some Invasive Species that are known
within the Great Lakes Region are…
ZEBRA & QUAGGA MUSSELS
PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE
SEA LAMPREYS
ASIAN CARP
ROUND GOBY
PRAGMATISTS
22
The natural environment in which a
plant or animal lives is called its what?
HABITAT
23
An area where the soil is usually wet,
damp or covered with water.
WETLAND
24
What is an underground layer of waterbearing permeable rock, rock fractures
or unconsolidated materials (gravel,
sand, or silt) from which groundwater
can be extracted using a water well?
AQUIFER
25
The longest river in the United States is
what?
MISSOURI RIVER
Hint:
it is NOT the
Mississippi River
(as it’s the widest)
What is the cutting
of large areas of
forests for human
activities such as
buildings for
businesses &
residential is called
what?
DEFORESTATION
Is the gradual increase in the
temperature of Earth’s surface over
time is called what?
GLOBAL
WARMING
28