Unit II The Importance of Water and

Rivers

Now that you know some biology and ecology it’s time to go in depth.

• In this unit we will explore the role of water with regards to the environment and biology. We will examine water’s characteristics, its quality, the role water plays in rivers influencing the life in them and reflecting the quality of life around them. Ultimately we will become experts in rivers and water quality, testing our own river in Northbrook.

Activity: What is water?

On each desk you will see a container of water. You and your table partner must write down at least 7 characteristics of water.

CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER: Consider its color, its phase or state at various temperatures, its odor, its chemical make up, its density, etc.

COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER

It is a liquid but can also be a solid or gas

As a liquid it ranges in temp from 0-100 degrees Celsius.

Earth is the only planet where water exists in all three states.

It is the most abundant compound on earth.

Made of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom; H2O

Very high heat capacity- can absorb a ton of heat without becoming too hot

Water likes to stick together and to things- cohesion

Water is the Universal Solvent (*next slide)

WHEN WATER FREEZES IT EXPANDS

Water is necessary for life to exist as we know it.

A solvent is a liquid, solid, or gas capable of dissolving another

liquid, solid or gas called a solute and forming a solution of the 2

substances..

Universal Solvent

Many substances dissolve in water and it is important for carrying the nutrients in living organisms. Even though water dissolves many substances, its own molecules are not chemically changed by the dissolved materials. When it evaporates it loses its impurities. Why is this important?

When water evaporates from solutions it leaves impurities behind; purifying it and thus it can be used

over and over.

 Water Cycle

 Now that you see how important water is, lets look at how much of this stuff we have.

GLOBE TOSS ACTIVITYGIVEN: 75% earth’s surface is waterHOW CAN WE AS A CLASS PROVE/TEST THIS WITH

JUST OUR HANDS AND A BLOW UP GLOBE?

PREDICTIONSOf the amount of global water, how much is realistically usable (usable meaning fresh water not salt water?)

Your group will be given one liter (1000 mL of water this represents all of the water on earth, given the types of water found on earth predict the various amounts that water that exist in each type.

Make predictions in your team

After you have divided it up, write down predictions of percentages and then we will reveal

the true answers

TYPE OF WATER True amount out of your 1L Container

% on earth

Oceans 973mL 97.2%

Ice Caps/ Glaciers 21mL 2.15%

Groundwater 6.1 mL .0622%

Freshwater Lakes .09mL or 2 drops .018%

Salt Lakes .08mL or 2 drops .0089%

Soil Moisture .05mL or 1 drop .005%

Atmospheric .01mL or 1/5 drop

.001%

Rivers .004mL .0001%

Notice, over 97 percent is saline (salt water-oceans).Of the total freshwater(3%), over 68 percent is locked up in ice and glaciers. Another 30 percent of freshwater is in the ground. Surface-water sources, such as rivers, only constitute about 300 cubic miles (about 1/10,000th of one percent of total water).

Now that you see how much water is really usable, you can understand why

it is necessary to protect and responsibly use this vital substance.

• Conservation can only occur through understanding the WATER CYCLE.

• Remember from ecology that water was one of the important cycles in nature. Water used by plants, animals, and people is never destroyed: it is used and reused by living and non- living forms. It is the earth’s vast plumbing system. Powered by the sun, the water is continually purified for reuse.

THE WATER CYCLE TESTYou probably know the answers to this test! Let’s see!

1. What is it called when water rises from a body of water into the atmosphere? 2. What if water rises from living plants?

THE WATER CYCLE TEST

3. And the water that rises then cools during condensation and sits in clouds until what happens?PRECIPITATION

PRECIPITATION

THE WATER CYCLE TEST

PRECIPITATION

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT! A

WATER CYCLE!

PRECIPITATION

One more thing…when the water hits the ground it can do 1 of 2 things…either it can seep into the ground called

INFILTRATION

Or it can dribble and run off the ground called

RUN-OFF

EITHER WAY IT EVENTUALLY MAKES IT WAY BACK INTO THE WATER CYCLE!

WHERE DOES THE WATER GO?

INFILTRATIONWater that sinks into the

ground gets held in a aquifer

and is called ground water.

The next slide dissects an aquifer.

RUN-OFF

This is water that runs over the lands into the

rivers lakes and reservoirs and is known as surface

water.

AN AQUIFER

Aquifer is like an underground sponge!

The top layer of the aquifer is called the water table! How far the water infiltrates depends on the soil, vegetation, and types of rock present.

TAKE A MINUTE TO LABEL AND RECOGNIZE THE PARTS OF THE WATER

CYCLE

WHAT IS THE MAIN SOURCE OF ENERGY FOR THE WATER CYCLE?

THE WATER CYCLE EQUATION

IF YOU HAD TO COME UP WITH AN ADDITION EQUATION FOR THE WATER CYCLE’S WATER…WHAT MIGHT IT BE?

EVAPORATION + TRANSPIRATION = PRECIPITATION

The problem with this equation is that the distribution of water is not even throughout the biosphere. What does

that mean?

RENEWEL TIME

DEFINITION:

The time required for all water in a body of water to be replaced or renewed.

Renewel time depends on:

-rate of flow

(things with faster flow renew quicker)

-volume of the body of water

(smaller volume of water renews quicker)

ESTIMATE WHICH WOULD RENEW FASTER…

A RIVER

LAKE MICHIGAN

DEEP GROUND WATER

SOIL MOISTURE

OR

OR

OR

OR

AN OCEAN

POLAR ICE CAPS

LAKE ERIE

THE NILE RIVER

Renewel Time

On average water is completely renewed in rivers once every 16 days. Water in the atmosphere is completely replaced once every 8 days. Slower rates of replacement occur in large lakes, glaciers, ocean bodies and groundwater. Replacement in these reservoirs can take from hundreds to thousands of years. Some of these resources (especially groundwater) are being used by humans at rates that far exceed their renewal times. This type

of resource use is making this type of water effectively nonrenewable.

Typical residence times of water found in various reservoirs.

 Reservoir Average Residence Time

 Glaciers  20 to 100 years

 Seasonal Snow Cover  2 to 6 months

 Soil Moisture  1 to 2 months

 Groundwater: Shallow  100 to 200 years

 Groundwater: Deep  10,000 years

 Lakes  50 to 100 years

 Rivers  2 to 6 months

WHAT IS A RIVER?WHAT IS A RIVER?

DEFINITION: A river is a collection of surface water finding its way over land from higher altitude to lower altitude, all due to GRAVITY.

Let’s explore some common features about surface water and rivers.

Some common river vocabulary

1.Flowing water from run off finds its way downhill initially into these

2.Small creeks merge to form these

3.Rivers eventually flow into these

4.Water that has made its way to a place that is surrounded by higher land on all sides is called these

5.If man has built a dam to hinder a river’s flow that lake that forms is called this

A.Lakes

B.Small Creeks

C.Streams and rivers

D.Reservoir

E.Oceans

B

A

E

C

D

WHERE DOES THE RIVER’S WATER COME FROM?

THINK ABOUT THE EARTH AND WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT LAND AND THE WATER CYCLE!

WHERE DOES THE RIVER’S WATER COME FROM?

THINK ABOUT THE EARTH AND WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT LAND AND THE WATER CYCLE! REMEMBER WHAT THE WATER TABLE IS?

The water table is the top of the aquifer and is usually far underground. SOMETIMES though, a river bank or low lands can actually dip into the water table and then water seeps into the opening and fills up a river.

PARTS OF A RIVER

The place a river begins is called the HEAD or HEAD WATERS of the river.

HEAD

As they flow to lower altitudes toward the ocean, rivers tend to merge to form larger rivers. The end of the river where it enters another river, a lake, or the ocean is known as the MOUTH.

MOUTH

OCEAN

PARTS OF A RIVERHEAD

MOUTH

OCEAN

Sometimes at the mouth of a river a DELTA is formed. As the river meets the Ocean or lake, it loses velocity and dumps its sediment in an expanding fan-shaped, or roughly triangular-shaped zone called a delta.

DELTA

PARTS OF A RIVERHEAD

MOUTH

OCEAN

Do you know what this zig zag pattern is called for a river? Hint: It is like a “wandering river”

DELTA

MEANDER

Meanders happen to a river over time. A river bends as it adjusts to disturbances, such as, increases in water volume or obstacles that deflects its

current.

PARTS OF A RIVERHEAD

MOUTH

OCEAN

Sometimes a river meanders so much that a

portion if it breaks off and forms a mini lake called an OX BOW

lake.

DELTA

MEANDEROX BOW

Let’s take closer look at the formation of an oxbow lake.

OX BOW LAKE FORMATION

REVIEW QUIZ

1. What is the process called where water leaves plants and rises into the atmosphere?

2. What is main source of energy/cause of the water cycle?

3. What is the difference between run off and infiltration?

4. What is the area called where a river begins?

5. Where it ends?

6. Where do most rivers eventually end up?

7. THINK! How does water get from the mouth of a river back to the headwaters?

CRINKLE PAPER ACTIVITYPlease listen carefully to your teachers instructions

Shade in the low areas with a blue marker/pencil. These represent the rivers, lakes, and reservoirs.

The higher land levels, or peaks on the paper, can be the mountains, hills, a RIDGE, CONTINENTAL DIVIDE OR MORAINE.

THIS ENTIRE DRAINAGE AREA IS CALLED A

Most of the continental divides that form the watershed boundaries in the midwest

were formed by glacial moraines.

Moraine is rock debris, fallen or plucked from a mountain and transported by glaciers or ice sheets. It forms a rise in the land.

While we don’t have a lot of mountains in this area we do have some hills, almost all of them are formed by glacial deposits or moraines.

WHAT IS A WATERSHED?A drainage basin or a land area which receives all the water flowing into a particular river. Check out these short movies!

CONTINENTAL DIVIDEThe one that runs along the highest ridges of the Rocky Mountains separates 2 watersheds. Precipitation falling on the western side of the Divide will flow towards the __________ Ocean and rain falling on the eastern slopes will flow toward the _____________ Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.

All rivers impact the land they run over and all land impacts the river’s quality and features. Mississippi River Delta

Rivers do three main things to the land they travel over.

• Erode the land by the force of water on the land’s surface.

• Transport the land. Carry the eroded land to another place.

• Deposit the eroded and transported land to another location.

Erosion

Transportation

Examples where rivers effect land.

•As silt is deposited in flood plains of rivers, excellent farmland is made. The ancient ______________ who lived along the ______ depended on the annual flooding for their livelihood.

•Also as the river ran over the land for millions of years in the Arizona area, it created the __________________

• As rivers move they carry and drop off, or deposit, soil, sand, and sediments. _River Deltas

GRAND CANYON

Egyptians Nile

EFFECTS OF RIVER WATER ON LAND

Another Matching Game!

1. Removal of material from a channel or bank

2. Movement of eroded particles by dragging or in solution

3. Accumulation of transported particles to another location on the streambed or floodplain.

A. Deposition

B. Transportation

C. Erosion

DEPOSITIONOpposite of erosion

Where a river lays down or drops sediments, rocks, mud, silt, boulders, pebbles, stones or materials that it is carrying

BENEFIT: Why might deposition help us?

DOWNSIDE: Why might deposition be harmful?

FARMING

FLOODING, BLOCKING OF CHANNEL

Deposition of sand on the inside edge of river bend

This is where the river current is the slowest.

Think of a Metaphor

Take a moment to devise a metaphor with your table partner for the terms deposition, transportation and erosion.

EXAMPLE: If a river were like Sunset grocery store, the picking up the items off the shelves would be erosion, the pushing of my cart would be transportation, and the placing the items down on the cashiers belt would be deposition.

Physical Changes in a River Over Time

What happens to people as they get old?

•They get slower

•They can not lift heavy objects, they get weaker

•They do not do as much physical activity

Physical Changes in a River Over Time

As opposed to a young person who…

•Can move fast

•Can lift many objects and carry them around

•Have much more physical activity

Physical Changes in a River Over Time

THE SAME IS TRUE FOR YOUNG AND OLD RIVERS!

Young kid YOUNG RIVER

OLD RIVER

Old person

Fast/enerrgy Fast flow Slow flow Slow

Can lift things and carry them around

Much Erosion

Little Erosion

Can NOT lift things and carry them around

Can carry things and NOT drop them

Little Deposition

Much Deposition

Can NOT carry things for long. MUST drop them

Steep Shallow

Physical Changes in a River Over Time

BECAUSE OF EROSION, DEPOSTION, AND TRANSPORTATION, things like OX-BOW lakes and

FLOODPLAINS get formed.

HUMAN CONTACT WITH RIVERS

THE RIVER CAN BE HELPFUL TO US OR HARMFUL TO US JUST AS WE CAN BE HELPFUL OR HARMFUL TO IT!

With your table partner, list 1 way for each by filling in the chart

Human Contact with Rivers(fill in the blanks)

How can the river help humans?

 

How can the river be harmful?

 

How can humans help the river?

 

**How can humans be harmful?

 

Human Contact with Rivers(fill in the blanks)

How can the river help humans?

 

How can the river be harmful?

 

How can humans help the river?

 

**How can humans be harmful?

 

Farming, trading, transportation

Monitor it, keep it clean, stop over- erosion

Flooding disasters

Pollution, over channelize it, construction, damming,

draining wetlands

Water Pollution - contamination or other alteration of the physical, chemical or biological properties of any natural waters of the state, or

other such discharge of any liquid, gaseous or solid substance into any waters of the state, as well, or is likely to create a nuisance or render such waters harmful or detrimental or injurious to public health, safety or welfare, or to domestic, commercial, industrial,

agricultural, recreational, or other legitimate beneficial uses, or to livestock, wild animals, birds, fish or other aquatic life (EPA

definition)

POLLUTION

- when a river acts as a sewer or -Pollutants that are trickier to drainage ditch for a factory or sewage point to the origin. Fertilizer treatment plant. From homes, farming, golf

courses.

-Because we know where the pollution is coming from we can POINT to the source— -Because we do not know the hence POINT SOURCE POLLUTION. exact source- NON POINT

SOURCE

Point Source Pollution Non-Point Source Pollution

POINT SOURCE OR NON?Which is which?

POINT SOURCE OR NON?

Point or non point source pollution

POINT SOURCE OR NON?

Floodplain Construction and Over Channelization of a River

The more we artificially channelize the river, the more it wants to find its floodplain leading to floods.

The more construction that occurs, the more erosion, which adds to the cloudiness and turbidity of the river and makes the banks less stable.

Examples of channelizing rivers

North branch of the Chicago River

DRAINING WETLANDSWETLANDS are areas which are next to and even part of river systems.

They are often drained and built upon leading to more run off, then erosion and and finally flooding.

When river banks erode flooding can occur!

DAMMINGMay be the most drastic alteration

of river systems

Because it provides:

1) Flood control

2) Recreation/beauty

3) Water Storage

4) Hydroelectricity

DAMMINGMay be the most drastic alteration

of river systems

When they are built they

1) May kill many organisms

2) Severely affect wildlife

3) Are dangerous to play by

4) Causing reservoirs to fill up with silt/ water back up

Now that we have some of the water and river basics we can begin to study our watershed. GBN is located on the West Fork of the North branch of the Chicago

River.