ms. a. mormando's class

Ms. A. Mormando's Class *

⦿ 8.E.1.1 Explain the structure of the hydrosphere including: Water distribution on Earth; Local river basin and water availability

8th Grade Science Essential Standard:


⦿ Stream - A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. It is important in the water cycle, groundwater recharge, and corridors for fish and wildlife migration

DISTRIBUTION OF WATER NOTES


⦿ MEANDERING STREAM - The meandering stream wanders laterally across a channel, often on a gentle slope. It has many meanders, or bends and is intermediately stable. It contributes to a healthy environment. Old streams or rivers have more meanders.



⦿ BRAIDED STREAM-consisting of multiple small, shallow channels that divide and recombine numerous times forming a pattern resembling the strands of a braid. Braided streams form where the sediment load is so heavy that some of the sediments are deposited as shifting islands or bars between the channels.



⦿ RIVER - is a natural watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, a lake, a sea, or another river. In a few cases, a river simply flows into the ground or dries up completely at the end of its course, and does not reach another body of water



⦿ RIVER BASIN - is the land that water flows across or under on its way to a river. Just as a bathtub catches all of the water that falls within its sides, a river basin sends all of the water falling within it to a central river and out to an estuary or to the ocean



⦿ WETLANDS - are lands that are wet at least part of the year because their soils are either saturated or covered with a shallow layer of water. Wetlands include a variety of natural systems, such as marshes, swamps, bottomland hardwoods, pocosins and wet flats.



⦿ SWAMP - is a wetland that is forested. Many swamps occur along large rivers, where they are critically dependent upon natural water level fluctuations. Other swamps occur on the shores of large lake



⦿ BOG - is a mire that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority of cases, sphagnum moss



⦿ MARSH - is a type of wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams, where they form a transition between the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems



⦿ ESTUARY - is a partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea



⦿ GROUNDWATER - is the water located beneath the earth's surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. Groundwater is thought of as liquid water flowing through shallow aquifers



⦿ Sediment - is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself.



⦿ EUTROPHICATION - is the ecosystem response to the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system. One example is the "bloom" or great increase of phytoplankton in a water body as a response to increased levels of nutrients



ms. a. mormando's class

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