The Great Lakes

Seiches

The result of wind or changes in barometric pressure that cause water to pile up on one side of lake. When the pressure difference subsides or the wind stops, the water slops back and forth. (Bath tub)

Angel Falls

The tallest water fall in the world with an uninterrupted drop of 2,648 ft. It is over 1,000 taller than any other water fall.

Explain three things the USA can do about Water Shortages

#1 Fix pipes: It is estimated that 1 in 6 gallons of fresh water is wasted every day due to leaky pipes in the USA #2 Reduce consumption: The average American uses about 70 gallons of water per day. This is twice as much as the average European and about 70 times as much as people in some countries in Africa. We would probably need about 13 gallons per day to have a good standard for living. #3 Copy Mother Nature's Ideas: Green roofs and bioswail are two examples

Temperature fluctuations in the Great Lakes

-Pollution/human influences -Seasons/weather/climate -biological decomposition -depth of lake -volume

The Great Lakes system includes:

-Superior -Huron -Michigan -Erie -Ontario

What are some of the worst contaminants?

1) Heavy metals 2) Polychlorinated biphanyls (PCBs) 3) Carbon dioxide 4) DDT (a pesticide)

How many jobs are connected to the Great Lakes? Generating what in wages?

1.5 million jobs, generating $62 billion in wages

How many people inhabit the Great Lakes watershed?

33 million people (1/10th of the USA population)

Lake

A body of non-marine water, including everything from Lake Superior to a small forest pond. Glaciers are responsible for most lakes. Kettle lakes form this way. During the last ice age, huge blocks of ice were buried under the soil. When the ice age ended, the blocks melted, leaving the lakes. Lakes can also be made by human activities (Lake Mead made by damming the Colorado river & the Skokie Lagoons).

River

A large natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries.

Watershed

A watershed describes an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a larger body of water.

Pathogens

A) When there is a lot of rain in urban areas, run-off from pavement, sidewalks, and parking lots overwhelm sewer systems. Large volumes of untreated water combines with run-off and directly entered waterways. B) The raw sewerage results in unwanted organism entering the water, including those that can cause bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases through direct body contact with contaminated water.

Niagara Falls

An immense boiling cauldron wherein 11,700,000 cubic feet of water drop 160 feet on its way from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. It erodes at a rate of 3-6 inches per year.

Explain Water Myth #3: With 5.3 billion people expected to experience water shortages by 2025 - this is just too big of a problem to solve.

Clean water could be obtained for these people for just $30 dollars a day by such simple techniques as wells, boreholes, and rainwater harvesting. Home water filters can remove debris, viruses, bacteria, and chemical contaminants from water.

Biomagnification

Describes the process that results in the accumulation of a chemical in an organism at higher levels than are found in its food. It occurs when a chemical becomes more and more concentrated as it moves up through a food chain.

What does each lake have?

Distinctive basin features, circulation and ecology

Lakes Moderate Temperatures

During the summer the Great Lakes lake absorb energy. In the winter the energy absorbed by the lake water is gradually released to the atmosphere, making the air over the water warmer than that over the land. The lake acts as a heat source.

What are the most productive lakes called?

Eutrophic

Lake effect snow

Forms in the winter when cold air masses move over warmer lake waters.

Global climate change

Four key ways the Great Lakes area will change are: 1) More 90° + days 2) Forest will change as trees that prefer cooler temperatures (maple, beech, birch, spruce, and fir) are replaced with trees (oak and hickory) that prefer warmer temperatures. These trees don't absorb as much CO2 as trees that prefer cooler temps 3) Many heavy rainfall events. Negative impacts are increased erosion, declining water quality due to soiled runoff, and transportation and infrastructure issues. 4) Warmer temperatures will change the numbers and species of aquatic plants and animals that will live in the Great Lakes.

Lake Superior

Largest of the Great Lakes in surface area & in volume. It has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in the world. Superior is the coldest and deepest. Average depths are close to 500ft, deepest point is 1,332

Asian Carp

It describes a variety of carp species from Southeast Asia. They eat 20% of their body weight every day. They have no natural predators in North America and the female lays over half a million eggs each time they spawn.

Lake Ontario

It has the same surface area as Lake Erie but is much deeper (contains 4 times as much water). It lies at 325ft below Lake Erie, at the base of Niagara Falls.

Why do rivers meander?

Meandering is the result of many factors. -Extra strong rock or soil types may provide barriers that make rivers move around them. -Water on the outer part of the curve moves faster than the inner edge. The faster moving water erodes the land, while deposition of sediment occurs at the inner edge. -When the meander is pinched off, an Oxbow lake forms.

What are lakes with intermediate productivity called?

Mesotrophic

Invasive species

Non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem under consideration. Their introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

What are the least productive lakes called?

Oligotrophic (Great Lakes were all this before European settlers)

Ogallala Aquifer

One of the world's greatest aquifers is located in the western USA. It underlies 8 states and probably contains as much fresh water as one of the Great Lakes. Almost half of the water in the Ogallala has been drawn by people living in the are for drinking and primarily for crop irrigation. Hydrologists fear the Ogallala Aquifer will dry up in the next 15-20 years because the rate of withdraw for exceeds the rate of discharge.

Amazon River

One of the world's greatest rivers. At any given time it contains around 20% of the freshwater that is being carried to the sea on Earth.

Pros and Cons of more states using the Great Lakes' water supply

Pros: -dry areas have water to grow crops -maintain their population & ability to live their -we have other water sources -water is the most important resource Cons: -less water = shallower = more polluted -more human contact -destruct water flow & ecosystems -expensive -no regulation on water, so why should we have to let the, come after our water source?

Difference in bottled water

Spring water: actually derived from a spring Purified water: from any source (including a municipal water supply) that has been purified Artesian water: bottled water from a well that taps a confined aquifer.

Spring

Refers to places where groundwater appears on Earth's surface. They are even found in the desert where they create an oasis.

Lake Michigan

Second largest according to volume. The only lake with borders that are entirely in the United States. The largest freshwater sand dunes line the shores of Lake Michigan. Lake Michigan and Huron are actually "one" lake separated by the Straits of Mackinaw.

Lake Erie

Shallowest lake (averaging only 62ft) & overall the smallest by volume. Erie is exposed to the greatest effects from urbanization and agriculture. Because it is not as deep as the others, Erie warms rapidly and is frequently the only Great Lake to freeze over. It is the warmest and most biologically productive of the Great Lakes.

Aquifers

Subterranean reservoirs of water. In spaces between underground rocks and sand and other material, water collects. It flows at a much slower rate than most surface water. Natural underground of earth, gravel, or porous stone that contains ground water.

What is the largest fresh water system on Earth?

The Great Lakes

What is the longest river in the world?

The Nile

Explain Water Myth #2: The water crisis has nothing to do with the USA.

The Ogallala Aquifer is running out quickly. The canal that connects the Colorado River to Phoenix drains about 20% of the river.

Sea lamprey

The first non indigenous fish species in the Great Lakes that has been arguably the most destructive. It feeds by attaching its mouth to the side of a fish, lacerating the fish's skin with its tongue, and then sucking body fluids out.

Mississippi River

The greatest river in the United Stated. It drains around 40% of the lower 48 states. It borders 10 US states including Illinois.

Salt lakes

The high salt concentrations make these lakes among the most inhospitable places on the planet. The greatest salt lake is the Dead Sea. A few million years ago the Dead Sea was connected with the Mediterranean. As the polar ice caps grew the ocean waters receded, land locking the Dead Sea and leaving it surrounded by deep beds of salt. Combo of water evaporation, dissolution of salt beds and human drainage resulted in the current day lake.

How has increased agriculture in the Great Lakes basin resulted in oxygen depletion in the Great Lakes?

The increased fertilizer means more green growth. The plants grow but then die and sink to the bottom. While the decomposing organisms break down the plant they use up the oxygen. Biochemical oxygen demand.

Victoria Falls

The largest single curtain of falling water in the world. It is over 5,600 ft wide and average 328 ft tall.

Explain Water Myth #1: It is true that water covers about 2/3 of the Earth's surface.

The oceans contain 97.5% (too salty to drink). Of the 2.5% of the world's water that is not salty, over 2/3 is unavailable because it's locked up in the ice caps and glaciers. Of what is left, about 20% is in remote areas, and much of the rest arrives at the wrong time and place, as monsoons and floods.

Water Crisis

The world's supply of fresh water is running out. Already 1 in 6 people have no access to safe drinking water.

Deltas

They are low, watery land masses that forms at the mouth of rivers. They are made by the accumulation of sediment carried by a river as it runs into the sea. The soil tends to be very rich and fertile.

Lake Huron

Third largest according to volume, containing nearly 850 cubic miles of water. Home to many ship wrecks, average depth of 195ft. It has the longest shoreline of the Great Lakes, counting the shorelines of its 30,000 islands.

Bioaccumulate

This is what many of the pollutants in the Great Lakes are known to be. This means that concentrations of the chemicals are stored in fatty tissue and are not flushed out. In time the levels of the pollutants in living organisms can be many times greater than the chemical's concentration in the environment.

What causes lake level change?

Variations in precipitation, evaporation, runoff, and snow melt, as well as wind and waves.

How much of the world's fresh surface water is in the Great Lakes?

nearly 20%