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How do you calculate Average Residence Time (ART)?
ART = S (size in area of reservoir) / F (rate of transfer)
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Why is ART being discussed?
In our world today, due to climate change, our ice caps and glaciers are melting, changing the ART from tens of thousands of years to a couple decades. We are also consuming water from the groundwater, whose ART is hundreds to many thousands of years. The replenish rate is far less than our consumption rate and the abrupt shortening of ART will affect our global ecology, throwing off the hydrologic cycle.
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How can solids in water be bad and how can you test them?
- 1) Reduces water quality (increased turbidity)
- a. Reduces visibility for organisms
- b. Can compromise respiration
- c. Negatively impacts benthic environment
- d. Makes treating drinking water difficult and expensive
- 2) Tests: Total Suspended Solids (TSS), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
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How are dead zones created?
- Runoff, pollution, algal growth, fertilizers (like Mississippi delta)
- Upwelling, excessive growth (like NW USA)
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Put in order (biggest to smallest) the bodies of water in terms of the % they make up in the world
Ocean, Glaciers, Groundwater, Lakes, Atmosphere, Rivers {OGGLAR}
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What are the ART for the bodies of water?
- Glaciers- 10k+ years
- Ocean- 1k+ years
- Groundwater- 100+ years
- Lakes- 10+ years
- Rivers- 2 weeks
- Atmosphere- 9 days
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Influent v. Effluent Streams?
- Effluent Stream- flow maintained during dry season by groundwater seepage into channel (discharge zone)
- Influent Stream- located above water table; flows in response to precipitation (recharge zone)
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Describe the structure and characteristics of a watershed.
- Watersheds
- 1) Large drainage basin; extends from highest to lowest point of basin
- a. Bounded by some landform, often mountains; well-defined
- b. Funneled shape with entry and exit point; some flow
- 2) Includes all local landforms, vegetation, organisms, water bodies
- 3) Often divided into smaller units
- 4) Can include human modified regions
- Important Characteristics
- 1) Physical: extent of area covered, boundaries, terrain, geology, climate
- 2) Chemical: DO, pH, TSS, nutrients, toxics, mineralogy of soil
- 3) Biological: plant/animal biota, threatened or endangered species
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What is the difference between sand, silt, and clay? What is a loam? How do these soil types determine the function and quality of a particular resource (both natural and engineered)?
- Finer grains (sand -> silt -> clay), creates different ability for nutrient and water retention. Loam is any combination of those three elements. If want to retain a large amount, want clay. If want high percolation, want sand.
- Clays, clay loams, silty clays, and silty clay loams are generally more desirable than coarse-textured soils because of their superior retention of nutrients and water.
- Coarse textured soils are desirable for irrigation or liquid waste disposal.
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What are the major Ocean Basin Drainages?
13% Pacific, 47% Atlantic, 13% Indian, 27% Southern Ocean/Endorheic (Endorheic basin is not an ocean, it is the land mass that doesn't reach oceans)
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What are the Global Watersheds?
- Amazon, Congo, Mississippi, Nile
- Biggest > > > > > > > > > > Smallest
- Low Population < < High Population
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Soil v. Dirt
Soil is mineral based, comprised of plants/animals/organics which nourishes/supports organisms
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What is Soil made out of?
- 25% Air, 25% Solution, 45% Mineral, 5% Organic
- 50% space, 50% solid
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