1. How much of the water in the Colorado River is allocated for use?  What is the water used for?  What is the problem with California’s use of the river?

2. How much of the earth’s water is fresh?  How much of that is readily available?

3. What is a watershed?  What is the floodplain of a river?

4. What do the terms littoral and benthic mean?   Oligotrophic and eutrophic?

5. Why are wetlands important ecologically?   What % of natural wetlands remain in the US?          California?

6. Know the terms groundwater, recharge area, water table, aquifer.

7. Where is the Ogallala Aquifer? Why is it important? What is happenening to it?

8. What regions of the US are already suffering water shortages or likely to do so in the future?

9. What % of the world’s large rivers have been dammed?    What is the % for N. America?

10. Globally, what % of water is used by each of the following sectors: agriculture, industry,          household /municipal

11. What is the difference between consumptive and non-consumptive uses of water?

12. What are the benefits provided by dams?

13. What are the environmental costs of dams? (negative impacts)

14. Where is the Three Gorges Dam?  What are its  serious environmental issues?

15. Where is the Aral Sea? What has happened to it?  What are the negative impacts? 

16. Why is groundwater even more at risk of depletion than surface water?

17. What are the 4 major consequences of groundwater depletion?

18. What is desalination?   Is it a practical solution to balancing water supply and demand?

19. What are the other potential solutions to balancing supply and demand?

20. What is the difference between joint and non-point sources of pollution? Which are harder to control?

21. Water quality is measured by assessing which:

Biological factors

Chemical factors

Physical factors

M 

22. Know how the following impact water quality:

            Nutrients and OM

            Pathogens

            Toxic chemicals

            Sediments

            Heat and cold

23. In what way is groundwater pollution a more serious problem than surface water pollution?

24. Can polluted groundwater be treated?

25. What are the three specific goals of modern wastewater treatment?

26. What types of materials are typically NOT removed during treatment?

27. The water in the ocean develops layers or strata based on what two characteristics?

28. How are upwellings and downwellings important in ocean ecology?

29. Most photosynthesis occurs between the surface and what depth?

30. Know kelp forests, coral reefs, and mangrove swamps as important community types- provide physical structure and food (via photosynthesis) for complex and diverse food webs.  

Kelp forest- mainly temperate zone, rocky coastlines

Coral Reefs and Mangroves- tropical to subtropical, sandy coastlines

31.  What are the major threats to mangrove forests?

32. What are the major threats to coral reefs?

33. In what way is plastic debris a threat to sea life?

34. What are the sources of oil pollution?  How does it affect sea life?

35. In what ways does nutrient pollution impact ocean life?

36. What are “red tides”?

37. What evidence is there that the oceans are being over-harvested?

38. What factors (besides greed) have led to the modern overexploitation of fish and other marine species?

39. What is by-catch and why is it a problem?

40. Understand how drift nets and bottom-trawling contribute to the destruction of marine life.

41. What are the benefits of Marine Preserves for marine life?

For fishermen?