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1 NEIGHBORHOOD WATER QUALITY
Lesson 1: Aquatic Ecosystems
Keywords: ecosystem, ecology, watershed, surface water, hydrologic cycle,
evaporation, transpiration, precipitation, surface runoff, percolation, porous,
aquifer, groundwater, spring, pond, phytoplankton, zooplankton, photosynthesis,
An is a natural unit of biological components. The plants
ecosystem
living and nonliving parts that interact within an ecosystem convert the
to produce a stable system. sun's energy into food, and are in
Ecology
is the study of ecosystems, or how turn grazed upon by animals, which
living things relate to the are consumed by predators.
environment and to one another. Microorganisms within an
Understanding this relationship is ecosystem, such as fungi and
important because living things and bacteria, also exchange energy
non-living things depend upon and within the ecosystem by breaking
impact each other. down waste material to substances
that can be used by plants for food.
Ecosystems operate from day to day In this way, each element within the
by exchanging energy. The energy ecosystem depends on the others for
exchanged within an ecosystem is survival.
recycled between the physical and
Aquatic Ecosystems and Watersheds
Aquatic ecosystems include oceans, which water flows to reach a
lakes, rivers, streams, estuaries, and common body of water such as a
wetlands. Within these aquatic lake or pond. We all live in a
ecosystems are living things that watershed, or drainage basin.
depend on the water for survival, Watersheds can be as large as the
such as fish, plants, and Mississippi River drainage basin or
microorganisms. These ecosystems as small as a farm with a pond. Your
are very fragile and can be easily watershed may be made up of
disturbed by pollution. mountains, farms, houses,
businesses, or towns. You share
All living things within an ecosystem your watershed with all other living
share the same watershed. A things within the ecosystem.
is an area of land over
watershed
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NEIGHBORHOOD WATER QUALITY
A watershed is a good example of directly into the water. This will have
how the living and nonliving things an effect on the organisms that
within an ecosystem depend upon depend on the water for survival. For
each other. Altering a watershed will example, some fish feed on
affect all the living things within that organisms in the water. Polluted
watershed. People can alter a water may cause these organisms to
watershed by paving over land and die, leaving the fish with no food.
constructing buildings. This will affect This is why we must understand
how water flows over the land and these relationships and protect our
may cause harmful materials to flow water resources.
Today’s Water
Only 1 percent of the water on Earth glaciers, within the ground as fresh
is available to humans as fresh groundwater, fresh surface water,
water. Most of the earth’s water and in the atmosphere. Fresh
exists in the oceans as salt water. includes water in
surface water
The small percentage of water lakes, rivers, streams, creeks,
remaining on the earth’s surface is ponds, and
found trapped in polar ice caps and
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NEIGHBORHOOD WATER QUALITY
wetlands. Humans obtain their fresh This is why we must protect our
water from surface waters and fresh water supplies.
groundwater. These make up only a
small quantity of the world’s water.
The Hydrologic Cycle
The is the the surface as ground water. The
hydrologic cycle
circulation of water among the water may exist as each of the three
oceans, the atmosphere, and the states of matter: solid, liquid, or gas.
land masses, through evaporation, is the change in water
Evaporation
precipitation, surface runoff, and from a liquid to a gas. Water
groundwater percolation. The cycle evaporates from the surface of the
has no beginning and no end. This oceans, lakes, streams, and rivers.
means there is no new water put into As the sun heats the surface waters,
the cycle, the same water is used water will be released into the
over and over again. Water exists in atmosphere in the form of water
all stages of the cycle: oceans, vapor. The greater the sun’s energy,
clouds, lakes and rivers, and below the more evaporation occurs. The
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NEIGHBORHOOD WATER QUALITY
sun can also cause water to Plants and animals will use some of
evaporate from plants leaves the precipitation that falls over land,
through a process called and some of the precipitation will be
. absorbed by the ground and moves
transpiration
Water vapor rises from the surface downward through the soil in a
waters and enters the atmosphere process called . Once
percolation
where it is transported by winds. the surface water has moved
When atmospheric conditions are underground it is called
suitable, water droplets will form and groundwater.
stick together to form clouds. This
process is called . The water that enters these
condensation
When the atmosphere is saturated, pathways eventually finds its way
or cannot hold anymore water vapor, back to the oceans through river
these droplets will be released and runoff, groundwater flow, and melting
fall to the earth’s surface as ice, which all discharge water into
precipitation. the oceans. This closes the
hydrologic cycle by returning the
Precipitation is water that is water originally removed from the
released from the atmosphere as ocean by evaporation.
rain, snow, hail, etc. Precipitation
that falls to the Earth’s surface can In this way, water goes around the
enter several different pathways hydrologic cycle. No new water is put
within the hydrologic cycle. on Earth; it is just stored in different
Precipitation that falls over bodies of places on Earth in different states
water such as lakes and rivers (solid, liquid, and gas). This means
becomes surface water, that we have the same amount of
Precipitation that drains across the water on earth today as when the
land and into lakes, streams, and dinosaurs roamed the planet.
rivers is termed ,
surface runoff
How Does Water Get Underground?
Water that falls to the earth’s surface underground through the tiny spaces
will runoff the land to join a body of between rocks.
water, be absorbed by the soil and
move downward through the ground Groundwater is important because
or be evaporated. Water that seeps most of the population depends on
into the soil will percolate through the underground water for drinking
ground and become part of the water. Groundwater can become
underground water system. This is polluted through percolation of
how surface water gets contaminated surface waters. The
underground. Groundwater moves water on the surface will pick up any
contaminates on the ground and
©PROJECT OCEANOGRAPHY 4 NEIGHBORHOOD WATER QUALITY
FALL 2000
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