FIELD BIOLOGY WATER REVIEW SHEET
Readings
Chapter 15
Freshwater Ecosystems
The Voyage of Rainfall
The Water Over the Dam
Mussels, Gators, and the Corp
Objectives
1. You should be familiar with the atomic and molecular structure of water and
the important resulting properties that result from its atomic nature.
2. You should understand the differences between the two major categories of
freshwater ecosystems within a watershed.
3. You should be familiar with the physical characteristics of a lotic ecosystem,
including the major abiotic changes that occur from the headwater to midstream, and riverine habitats.
4. You should know how limnologist empirically designate different streams
within a watershed, and the general stream segment categories that arise
from the variable movement of water within a stream.
5. You should be able to compare and contrast the abiotic and biotic structure of
fast moving and slow moving water, including the changes in plant and
animals as the nutrients change from CPOM to DOM.
6. You should be familiar with the physical characteristics of a lentic ecosystem,
including the major abiotic delineations that occur from the surface waters to
the water just above the substrate (temperature, oxygen, and light).
7. You should know the many ways in which lentic ecosystems can form and be
able to give an example of each.
8. You should be able to compare and contrast the abiotic and biotic structure of
the littoral, limnetic, and benthic zones of a lentic ecosystem, as well as an
eutrophic and oligotrophic lake system.
9. You should be familiar with the function and particular adaptations for many of
the major groups of stream and pond invertebrates, including hirudinea
(leeches), pelecypoda (mussels), gastropoda (snails), decapoda (crayfish),
coleoptera (beetles), ephemeroptera (mayflies), hemiptera (true bugs),
megaloptera (dobsonflies), odonata (dragonflies and damselflies), plecoptera
(stoneflies), trichoptera (caddisflies).
10. You should understand the history associated with the damming and other
stream engineering on American streams, the reasons which stream
engineering occurs, as well as the resulting influences on stream engineering
on the abiotic and biotic characteristic of a stream.
11. You should be familiar with the function of beaver, mussel, alligator within a
stream ecosystem, their adaptations to the stream habitats, as well as
specific human impacts on these organisms and the resultant effect on the
ecosystem.
Vocabulary
water
protons
neutrons
polar covalent bond hydrogen bonding solvent
water tension
high boiling point low melting point
density
lotic ecosystem
lentic ecosystem
headwaters
first order stream
turbidity
riffles
meander
ox bow lake
chain
autotrophic food chain
shredders
collectors
predators
producers
secondary consumers
raparian zone
driftwood
electrons
heat capacity
phases of matter
limnology
turbulent
runs
sandbar
riverine habitat
pools
heterotrophic food
CPOM
grazers
consumers
drift
FPOM DOM
scrapers
primary consumers
spiraling
temp. stratification summer stratification
epilimnion
mesolimnion
hypolimnion
fall overturn
water density
winter stratification
spring overturn
thermocline
plankton
phytoplankton
zooplankton
nekton
emergent plants
floating plants
benthos
oxygen levels
photosynthesis
respiration
temperature
decomposition
trophogenic zone compensation level
tropholytic zone
light
littoral zone
limnetic zone
benthic zone
eutrophic lake
oligotrophic lake
hirudinea
segmentation
parasitic
hermaphroditic
pelecypoda
bivalve
foot
mantle
shell
filter feeding
gastropoda
foot
shell
radula
grazer
gills
lungs
decapoda
exoskeleton
claw
walking feet
swimmerets
coleoptera
elytra
plastron
physical gill
ephemeroptera
biomonitor
indicator species
three terminal cerci hemiptera
piercing-sucking beak
grasping legs
surface respiration megaloptera
primitive insects
hellgrammite
sickle-like jaws
odonata
protractile labium caudal gills
plecoptera
two terminal cerci indicator species
trichoptera
cryptic cases
case respiration
shelter
beaver
Castor canadensis tail
castoreum
incisors
coecotrophy
ecotone
edge community
erosion
Reclamation Act 1902
reclamation projects agriculture
irrigation
hydroelectric power flood control
drinking water
sediment load
nutrient load
seasonal flow
temp. stratification erosion
slope
deep outlet dams surface outlet dams insect emergence
salmon
fish ladders
fish hatcheries
hatchery fish
mussels
glochidia
filter feeders
pearl industry
button industry
crowsfoot
artificial propagation river fish
sturgeon
paddlefish
engineered waterways
alligators
succession
deforestation
flood control
erosion
runoff
sediment
stream channelization
transportation
flood control
downstream flooding
levees nutrients
phosphorous
eutrophication
algae bloom
biomagnification
point source pollution
non-point source poll.
heavy metal
toxins
anoxic water