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What impacts water quality?

Recreation, drinking water, and fishing.

All Flashcards

What impacts water quality?
Recreation, drinking water, and fishing.
What is the relationship between BOD and DO?
High BOD leads to low DO, which is harmful to aquatic life.
How does temperature affect DO?
Cooler water holds more DO than warmer water.
What is the significance of indicator species?
Their presence or absence indicates ecosystem health and pollution levels.
What is the Zone of Tolerance?
The range of conditions where an organism can survive and thrive.
What are indicator species?
Species sensitive to environmental changes, used to assess ecosystem health.
What is Dissolved Oxygen (DO)?
The amount of oxygen present in water, crucial for aquatic life.
What is Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)?
The amount of oxygen needed by organisms to decompose organic waste.
Define hypoxic.
An environment with low oxygen levels.
Define anoxic.
An environment with no oxygen.
What is the Oxygen Sag Curve?
A graph showing how DO levels change downstream from a pollution source.
Define nonpoint source pollution.
Pollution that comes from many diffuse sources, rather than a single identifiable location.
What are chemical dispersants?
Chemicals used to break down oil into smaller droplets for easier dispersion.
How do scientists monitor water quality?
By measuring dissolved oxygen (DO), nutrient levels, and disease-causing organisms/toxins.
Describe the cleanup process of oil spills.
Involves chemical dispersants and controlled burns, which release carbon into the atmosphere.