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33 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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How is climate change expected to affect precipitation and flow regimes in the NW?
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a. Longer dry seasons. Less precipitation during the winter so less snowpack runoff during the summer. Rivers in the NW depend on snowmelt for high flow season.
b. Earlier flows, long dry season, low summer flows |
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Why is freshwater quality so important? Justify answer based on abundance.
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Need fresh water to drink, irrigate, and survive. Relative abundance. Accessible to humans. Better maintain what we can get to.
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What are the four defining characteristics of water and how can they be altered by humans?
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Temperature – Dam cools water
b. Flow rates/amount – We withdraw water, which reduces the amount of water c. Chemistry – We distribute fertilizers into the water, which adds nutrients d. Turbidity – Deforestation leads to more soils being deposited into the streams because roots no longer filter the water and slow water flow |
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What is a watershed? How is it defined geographically?
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a. Area of land drained by a single stream.
b. Ridge Lines, drain directions. |
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Describe the water cycle.
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Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Storage
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Define a Riparian Area
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The area that lines the stream and has high levels of vegetation
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Explain the chain of events that led to the reef degredation due to farm fertilizer
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Increased nutrients that run off into the ocean, creating algal blooms, taking over the reef systems.
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Be able to use the river continuum concept to describe the systematic change to river characteristics from the headwater to estuaries
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a. Headwaters: Mostly external nutrient input from plants, narrow channel. Greater canapy cover, cleaner/colder water, little algae development on rocks
b. Middle reaches/transition zone: increase in algae production on rocks, channel widens with increased flow, canapy opens, warmer water, greater fish diversity c. Estuaries: most production internal, high nutrient load from upstream, warm-water loving fish, high dissolved oxygen |
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Name 5 broad classes of aquatic systems and it’s unique human influence.
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a. Streams/Rivers – Dams, point and non-point pollution, streams move sediment downstream for human usage.
b. Lakes – Urban runoff (oil, metals, nitrogen), Sewage runoff, agricultural runoff, timber harvest c. Aquifers – Using up all of aquifer water, faster than it’s recharging. Depleting aquifers. d. Estuaries – Highly productive for aquatic life, used for resorts, and fishing areas. e. Marine Systems – Alluvial fans in oceans are growing at high rates, fertilizers being deposited in ocean, reefs endangered |
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How does power generation impact aquatic ecosystems with respect to flow, quantity, chemistry, turbidity and temperature?
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Lower flow, high quantities in reservoirs above dam but low below dam, flooded areas for reservoir could contain chemicals (fertilizers), increased siltation, increased temperature
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What are the tradeoffs associated with dam construction of the Glen Canyon Dam?
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Allowed for growth in the arid southwest. Prevents the Colorado from flooding naturally. River can no longer deposit sedimentation naturally down the river. Cultural service, ruins.
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What are the tradeoffs associated with dam construction of the Glen Canyon Dam?
a. With respect to economics, growth, flood control, and ecosystem services |
c. Economics: Glen Canyon Dam allowed people to farm and live in the Southwest. Made that area productive
d. Flood control: Colorado River before flooding often. Glen Canyon Dam allowed them to control the flooding because water was diverted to Lake Powell e. Cultural: Before dam, that canyon was filled with Native American art. Many tourists would visit. Now that there’s a dam, it all got flooded and that was destroyed. |
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What are the impacts of agriculture on water quantity and quality?
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More water used for irrigation. Fertilizers pollute water
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What is desertification? How can irrigation cause it?
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Conversion of rangeland, cropland, or irrigated cropland to desert like land with a drop in productivity of 10% or more. Irrigation can suck water out of aquifers and groundwater deposits and cause increased salinity in the soil.
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Compare and contrast the Aral Sea crisis with the opportunities in the Okavango River Basin
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Rivers leading to the Aral Sea to be diverted for irrigation and now the Aral Sea is almost completely gone and rivers around the Aral Sea are almost as salty as oceans due to farming in the desert. Okavango River Basin is facing similar future. Sediment would not move into delta. Working to minimize impacts.
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What are the pros and cons of the Colombia Basin Project?
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Fish populations above the Grand Coulee dam have been greatly reduced. Changes temperature in water, oxygen content, and flow patterns. Offers irrigation to area that usually receives very little rain, recreation, power, and flood protection.
1941 – Created largest irrigation project in the world c. Pros: i. Uses power from Grand Coulee to pump water uphill to Bank’s Lake ii. Has helped all of Washington’s farmers receive more water for agriculture d. Cons: i. Heavily subsidized by taxpayers ii. High electricity prices iii. Phase 2 never completed |
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How are water resource issues likely to influence international conflict in the 21st century?
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As water becomes more scarce conflicts will occur between border countries that use the same river, aquifer, or any other source of water
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What is the difference between point and nonpoint pollution?
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Point source is a known entry way of pollutants into a water source such as a pipe coming from a factory. Non-point is not so defined. Pollution coming from a broad area such as run-off from agriculture
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What is eutrophication?
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Increase in chemical nutrients in a ecosystem
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How do we as individuals impact the use of water with respect to daily use and food?
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Meat production uses an enormous amount of food. Showers, toilets, watering lawns
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How does the need for transportation on rivers impact flow and sedimentation regimes?
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Change in course or flow rates of river and depth increases sedimentation
b. Dredging: interference with natural sedementation |
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What was the effect of agriculture on the development of humanity?
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Allowed us to settle in a single place and develop large communities
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What is the importance of biogeography and grain production?
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a. Not everywhere can produce grain, Fertile Crescent, similar climate. Dryer climate.
b. Everywhere that could produce grain had biogeography and climate similar to the Fertile Crescent. |
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Why does grain production have a significant impact on the development of societies?
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Feeds people, livestock, storable, high in protein.
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How does domestication of animals impact the development of societies?
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Spend more time doing other things besides hunting
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What is the Green Revolution and who were its primary architects?
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Norman Borlaug, and Orvil Vogel. Industrialized and massed produced wheat production. Wheat bred for short stalks, more photosynthesis, does not fall over. Large increase in fertilizer.
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What is the Talents Effect and why is it important in understanding global agriculture production?
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Those who had land and access to technology became wealthy. Those who produced the technology became wealthy. Subsistence farmers lost land or were frozen out of market.
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What is the relationship between industrial agriculture and an increase in pests?
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biodiversity caused by monocultures cause certain pests populations to thrive
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Use an example to describe the Law in Unintended Consequences
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Bhopal, India has a plant that is producing a pesticide to help crops but the plant releases Methyl Isocyanate and kills many, and has harmful pregnancy effects on women
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What are the potential costs and benefits of GMO crops?
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Disease resistance, herbicide resistance, improved nutrition, less fertilizer and water, longer shelf life. Unpredictable genetic effects, toxic to unintended insects, reduce genetic diversity, food allergies.
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What are the potential problems with genetically uniform crops?
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Reduced genetic diversity, more susceptible to crop destruction from disease
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Why is patenting seeds potentially problematic?
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Genes move from one thing to another and we do not know what happens to that gene. Cant follow everywhere.
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What are the pros and cons of industrial meat production?
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a. Pro – Satisfy demand for meat at low prices. Less work for farmers, more meat produced.
b. Cons – Waste production, less nutritious, destroys environment, unhealthy for the animals and for the people eating them. |
