Essential Standards
8.E.1.1-8.E.1.4
The Structure of Water
 Polar Molecule: A molecule that has electrically charged
areas.
 H2O : Each Hydrogen atom has a slight positive charge.
Each Oxygen atom has a slight negative charge.
Properties of Water
 Capillary Action: The combined forces of attraction
among water molecules and with the molecules
surrounding materials. Allows water to move through
materials with pores inside.
 Surface Tension: The tightness across the surface of
water that is caused by the polar molecules pulling on
one another. Allows water to form round beads when
they fall onto a car windshield.
 Universal Solvent: Water dissolves so many
substances that it is called the “universal solvent”. The
charged end of the polar molecules attracts the
molecules of other polar substances.
 Specific Heat: is the amount of heat needed to
increase the temperature of a certain mass of a
substance by 1 degree Celsius. Compared to other
substances, water requires a lot of heat to increase its
temperature.
 Heat of Vaporization: The amount of heat energy
required to turn liquid water into a vapor (A.K.A
boiling point)
 Cohesion: Water molecules stick to each other. The
more molecules collected together the larger the
droplet of water.
 Adhesion: Water molecules stick to other objects.
Water forms dew on the grass in the early morning.
Sinking or Floating
 Buoyant force: Acts in the direction opposite to the
force of gravity, so it makes an object feel lighter.
 Density: The mass in a given volume.
Density= Mass / Volume.
*Remember that you will love density
 The more dense an object
the more likely it is to sink.
 Given fact: The density of water 1.00 g/cm3
Young Rivers
Mature Rivers
Old Rivers
Found in the mountains
Straight
Narrow
V-Shaped Bottom
Deep
Large Boulders
Fastest
Large Waterfalls
Foothills
Curves (Meanders Some)
Wider
U- Shaped Bottom
Shallower than Young
Some boulders, smaller rocks
Slower than young
Some waterfalls
Flatlands
Really Curvy (Meanders a lot)
Widest
Wide U-Shaped Bottom
Shallowest
Pebbles
Slowest
Small to no waterfalls
Ox Bow Lakes occur here
 Distribution of Earth’s Water
100% of Water
97% is Salt Water
3% is Freshwater
76% found in Ice
12% shallow groundwater
11% Deep Groundwater
0.34% Lakes and Rivers
0.037% Water Vapor
River Systems
 Tributaries: The streams and smaller rivers that feed into a main river.
 Watershed: The land area that supplies water to a river. Watersheds
are sometimes known as drainage basins.
 Divides: One watershed separated from another by this ridge of land.
 River Basin: Portion of land drained by a river and its tributaries.
 The final destination of water drained by a river basin is an estuary or
an ocean.
 For land dwellers, everyone lives in a river basin.
 If you don’t live near water, you live on land that drains to a river,
estuary, or lake.
 There are 17 river basins in North Carolina
North Carolina Map of River Basins
Types of Wetlands
 Freshwater Wetlands
 Marshes: Grassy areas covered with shallow water.
 Swamps: Swamps look like flooded forests.
 Bogs: Formed in depressions left over from melting ice
sheets, the water is usually acidic.
Importance of Wetlands
 Important to Wildlife: Their sheltered waters and
rich supply of nutrients, wetlands provide habitats for
many living things.
 Important to People: Wetlands act as natural water
filters, by trapping silt and mud in the thick root
systems of plants. Also they help to control floods by
absorbing extra runoff from heavy rains.
Estuaries
 Where oceans and rivers meet
 Brackish water: mixture of salt and freshwater
 Very Shallow
 Lots of Vegetation
 Nutrient Rich
 Very few predators
 Nursery for many aquatic species
 Buffer Zone for pollutants
 Habitat for many aquatic/terrestrial species
Estuaries
 Most biologically diverse areas on Earth
 Tides help circulate the nutrients from the land to the
water
 The largest North Carolina estuary is the Pamlico
Sound.
 Water drains into this system from Eastern NC and
Southeastern VA
 Estuaries control erosion and reduce flooding on the
mainland.
Polluted Estuary in Brazil
Underground Water
 Aquifer: Any underground layer of rock or sediment
that holds water
 Wells: People can obtain groundwater from an aquifer
by drilling a well below the water table.
 Artesian Well: Water rises because of pressure within
an aquifer.
Water Supply and Demand
 How People use Water?
 In the home

Potable water
 Industry and Transportation
 Power plants and Steel Mills
 Agriculture
 Irrigation: process of supplying water to areas of land to make them suitable for
growing crops
 Recreation
 Conserving Water
 Conservation is the practice of using less of a resource so that it will not be used
up.
 Reducing water use, recycling water, and reusing water are three ways to
conserve water.
 Conserve water:



In the home
In industry
In agriculture
 Fresh water for the future
 Two possible methods of obtaining fresh water for the
future


Desalination: Removing salt to turn salt water to freshwater
 Ways to desalinate water:
 Distillation: boiling the water to evaporate and leave the salt
behind
 Freezing the water
 Pump the water at high pressure through a very fine filter.
The filter separates out pure water and returns salty water to
the ocean.
 Desalination is very expensive because of the energy and
equipment it requires.
Melting Icebergs
Water Quality
 Standards of Quality
 Water Quality is a measurement of the substances in water
besides water molecules.
 Certain substances, such as iron, can affect the taste or color of
water but are harmless unless present at very high levels. Other
substances such as certain chemicals and microorganisms can be
harmful to your health.
 EPA: The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for
developing water-quality standards.
 A concentration: The amount of substance in a certain volume
of another substance.
Stewardship
 Water quality supports healthy environments in which
rich and varied communities of organisms can be
found.
 Cultivating an awareness of the importance of
monitoring and maintaining water quality in NC
hydrologic system is the first step towards developing
stewardship skills for students
 Stewardship: possessing the knowledge to protect our
water for future generations.
Water Facts
 Two-Thirds of our planet is covered by water.







of the
water is saltwater.
66% of the human body is made up of water
We should drink at least 11⁄2 litres of water a day.
At just 2% dehydration your performance decreases by around
20%.
80% of illnesses in developing countries is caused by water
related diseases
The number of people with access to clean water has doubled in
the last 20 years.
1.1 billion people in the world still do not have access to safe
water. This is nearly 20% of the population.
The UN estimates that by 2025, 75% of the world population
won’t have reliable, clean water.
 Acidity
 The pH of water is a measurement of how acidic or basic
the water is on a scale of 0-14.
 Pure water has a pH of 7, it is neutral, meaning it is
neither an acid or a base
 The closer to 0 the more acidic.
 The closer to 14 the more basic.
 Hardness
 The combined level of two minerals in a sample of water
is referred to the hardness of that sample.
 Hard water contains high levels of calcium and
magnesium.
 The minerals come from rocks, such as limestone, that
water flows through underground.
 Disease Causing Organisms
Such organisms can be detected in water by
conducting a coliform count, which measures the
number of Escherichia coli bacteria.
Treating Drinking Water
 Filtration and Coagulation
 Filtration: is the process of passing water through a series of screens
that allows the water through, but not larger solid particles. During
this step, trash, leaves, branches and other large objects are removed
from the water.
 Coagulation: A chemical is added to cause sticky globs, called flocs, to
form. Other particles stick to the flocs, a process known as
coagulation. The heavy clumps then sink into the settling basins.
 Water is then filtered again.
 Chlorination
 Chlorine is added to drinking water for the same reason it is added to
swimming pools: to kill disease- causing microorganisms.
 Aeration and additional treatment
 Air is then forced through the purified water.
 This reduces the unpleasant odor and tastes.
 Testing Samples
 Public health officials regularly test samples from water
treatment plants to assess water quality.
 Water Distribution
Treating Waste Water
 Two ways that communities deal with sewage are:
 Wastewater Treatment Plants
 Septic Systems
Freshwater Pollution
 Water Pollution is the addition of any substance that
has a negative effect on water or the living things that
depend on water.
 Pollutants: the substance that cause water pollution.
 Bio indicators (Macroinvertebrates): are species
used to monitor the health of an environment or
ecosystem

1st-class water : It is clean and odorless so it can be used as drinking water after going through a
simple purification process.

2nd-class water : It can be used for drinking, bathing, and swimming.

3rd-class water : It is yellowish brown muddy water. It has sand and pebbles at its bottom so it is
used as industrial water.

4th-class water : It is seriously polluted so swimming in this water can cause skin troubles.

5th-class water : It is very dirty so no organisms can live in the water.
Point
and
Nonpoint
Source
 Source of pollution are classified, in part, by
how they enter a body of water.
 Point Source: A specific source of pollution
that can be identified.
 Nonpoint Source: A widely spread source
of pollution that can not be tied to a specific
point of origin.
.
 Effects of pollutants:
 Pesticides are chemicals intended to
kill insects and other organisms that
damage crops.
 Some pollutants, such as pesticides,
can build up in the bodies of living
things
Human Wastes
 The three major sources of water pollution are:
 Human wastes


Sewage in Cities
Sewage in Rural Areas
 Industrial wastes
 Chemicals
 Smoke and Exhaust
 Acid Rain: precipitation that is slightly more acidic than normal
 Heat Pollution
 Chemical runoff
 Runoff from farms
 Fertilizers and Pesticides
 Addition of fertilizers, which contains nitrates, speeds up the process of
Eutrophication. The scum that forms can block out sunlight and chokes the
flow of water, which can change the living conditions of the organisms.
 Runoff from roads
 Gasoline
 Oil
 Salts
Water Pollution Solutions
 Cleanup
 Prevention
Ocean Water Chemistry
 Salinity: The total amount of dissolved salts in a sample of
water is the salinity of that sample.
 The effects of salinity:


Ocean water will not freeze until the temperature drops to about -1.9oC.
Sea water with low salinity holds more gas than high salinity water
 Ocean Properties
 Temperature of Ocean Water


Warm water is less dense than cold water; therefor it forms a thin layer
on the surface of the water.
The deeper you descend the colder the water gets.
 Changes with Depth


Decreasing Temperature: As you descend through the ocean, the water
temperature decreases
Increasing Pressure: Pressure increases continuously with the depth of
the ocean.


To observe the depth of the ocean, scientist must use a submersible, an
underwater vehicle built of materials that resist pressure.
Deep cold water, holds more gas than shallow water.
 Gases in Ocean Water
 Three gases in the Ocean



Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Oxygen (O2)
Nitrogen (N2)
 Carbon Dioxide is about 60 times more plentiful in the
ocean as in the air.



Algae need CO2 for photosynthesis
Coral use CO2 for the carbon in order to build their hard skeletons
Oxygen is more plentiful near the surface of the water
 The amount of oxygen is affected by the temperature of the
water. The colder the water the more dissolved oxygen.
 Respiration releases energy from stored carbohydrates and
produces CO2 and water as byproducts.
Earth’s Ocean
 Food Web: all of the feeding relationships that exist
in a habitat make up this.
 Terrestrial: Living on land
 Aquatic: Living in ocean.
 Ocean organisms generally belong to several food
chains that are linked to form a food web
 Algae in the ocean are important food source as well as
a source of dissolved and atmospheric oxygen
 The most abundant plants in the ocean are
phytoplankton
 Ocean food chains and webs are also connected to
land-dwelling organisms
 Marine Ecosystems:
 Oceanographers divide the oceans into zone depending on how far down
sunlight penetrates.
 Why?
 Photic Zone
 Neritic Zone

The shallow water over the continental shelf receives sunlight and a steady supply of
nutrients washed from the land and a steady supply of nutrients washed from the land
into the ocean. The light and nutrients enable large plantlike algae to grow.
 Coral Reefs
 Coral reefs are created by colonies of tiny coral animals, each of which is not
much larger than a pencil eraser.
 Environment of coral reefs

Live in shallow, tropical ocean waters
 Kelp Forests
 Kelp forests grow in cold, neritic waters where the ocean has a rocky floor.
 Open Ocean (Pelagic Zone)
 The open ocean differs from the neritic zone in two important
ways:


Only a small part of the open ocean receives sunlight
The water has fewer nutrients
 Increased fish population near the surface is primarily due
to upwelling of nutrients from the lower regions of the
ocean.
 Upwelling: A process in which cold, often nutrient-rich
waters from the ocean depths rise to the surface.
 Happens when warm surface water near coastal areas is blown
off shore by winds, this creates a condition in which the cold
water near the bottom of the ocean rises, carrying sediment
and organic material to the surface.
 Approximately half of the fish caught in the world come from
an upwelling.
 Abyssal Plain
 Benthic Zone
 Extremophiles
 Hydrothermal vents

Are driven by heat from volcanism beneath the sea floor
 Cold Seeps


Provide nutrients that bacteria and other organisms can
utilize in order produce their own food through the process of
chemosynthesis
Release methane gas
 Living Resources
 Harvesting Fish

Fisheries today provide about 16% of the
world’s protein.
 Aquaculture:
 The farming of saltwater and freshwater
organisms
 Other Ocean Products
 Algae is an ingredient in many
household products
 Detergents
 Shampoos
 Cosmetics
 Paints
 Ice Cream
 Sediments that contain diatoms are use
for abrasives and polishes.
 Non-Living Resources
 Water
 Fuels

Oils

Government permission must be
obtained.
 Minerals
Protecting Earth’s Oceans
 Dredging: scraping and pulling from the shallow
depths of the ocean floor.
 Clouds of sediment rise up interfering with
photosynthetic processes of phytoplankton and other
marine life.

Turbidity: the cloudiness of the water
 Introduces previously undisturbed heavy metals into the
ocean food chain
 Drilling for oil offshore
 Geologist locate potential oil wells beneath the ocean
floor through magnetic or seismic surveys.
Oceans Technology and Exploration
 Sonar
 Sound Navigation and Ranging
 Used to map the ocean floor
 Scuba
 Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
 Enables divers to go to depths of up to 40 meters
 Remote Underwater
Manipulator
 Controlled by a computer
aboard a ship
 Takes photos and maps out
the ocean floor without a crew
aboard
 Deep Flight Aviator
 Maneuver faster and easier
than other submersibles
 Passengers can see more too
 Submersibles
 Enables divers to explore up to
11 km when first used.
 Satellites
 Makes million of observations
about the ocean a day
 Can provide data on rapidly
changing ocean conditions



Temperature
Algae Growth patterns
Movements of large schools of
fish