Limnology Quiz Questions

Front 1

What are the three methods to classify lakes, and which do you think is superior?

Back 1

Mixing, mophometric, trophic status. I think mixing is a decent classification because it gives insight on the productivity of a system which is an important context for lakes.

Front 2

What is viscocity and how does it affect aquatic life?

Back 2

It is a fluids resistence to flow.For aquatic life it can take more energy to move around. It also plays a part to the resistance of water mixing.

Front 3

What factors regulate the depth of the thermocline and what is the mechanism that links these factors?

Back 3

Temperature's affect to density ; wind going at a critical speed; fetch of the wind. Breaking waves that transfer turbulent energy into the system.

Front 4

Oxygen and methan are not very soluble in water but CO2 is quite soluble. What property of water determines whether or not gas is soluble in water and how does it work?

Back 4

Like dissolves like. So the more similar the substance to water, it will dissolve better. Water a also has a low capacity for non-polar substances.

Front 5

Why is 1C warming in tropical lakes as serious as 4C warming in a temperature lake?

Back 5

Because tropical lakes are at the threshold where a change in temperature would drop density significantly, which would severealy change the thermocline.

Front 6

What is the coriolis effect?

Back 6

A current in a lake, caused by the rotation of the earth. Important in only large lakes.

Front 7

What is a thermal bar?

Back 7

Squeezes the water towards the center density barriers creates a coastal jet, making coastal areas vulnerable to contamination.

Front 8

Why can large lakes modulate seasonal temperatures in the surrounding area?

Back 8

Due to the heat capacity of water.??

Front 9

What is an internal wave and what determines the size of an internal wave?

Back 9

It is a subsurface wave motion that effects that depth of the thermocline. The size depends on the length and the amplitude.

Front 10

What is the light attenuation coeffcient and how is it measured?

Back 10

The amount of light water can absorb.

Front 11

What is the self-shading coefficient?

Back 11

The amount of light absorbed by algae. As light becomes a limiting factor you start seeing bigger cells.

Front 12

Although CO2 is fairly soluble in water, why is there still a concern for it to be a limiting nutrient?

Back 12

CO2 has to be freely dissolved. pH of the lake can determine how much CO2 is available in the lake.

Front 13

What is the Leibigs' Law of the Minimum?

Back 13

Productivity is limited by the least available source.

Front 14

Why isn't lake Ontario sensitive to acid rain stress?

Back 14

Lake Ontario is surround my limestone and dolomite which dissolves in the lake increasing the Lake's pH, buffering it to acid rain stress.

Front 15

How do oxygen levels in the metaliminion become supersaturated?

Back 15

Metalimnion has a series of density layers that blocks diffusion from the lower and upper parts of the lake and so oxygen builds up during the day in these layers.

Front 16

Zeu andZm are determined by the same processes. Agree or disagree with this statement?

Back 16

Disagree, Zeu determine attenuation coefficient, Zm is determined....

Front 17

Why do algal commmunities have more diverse pigment than terrestrial plants?

Back 17

At different depths, different wavelengths penetrate more or less. And so, algae have evolved different pigments to utilize the energy of these different wavelengths.

Front 18

How does the ration of Zeu/Zm determine the production of a potential lake?

Back 18

d

Front 19

What is Pmax, and what processes can cause Pmax to vary in space and time.

Back 19

Light intensity at which max photosythesis occurs. It varies through mixing, the nature of light hitting the water.

Front 20

What is Ik, and how does this variable relate to a phytoplankton's ability to track the underwater light climate?

Back 20

Light intensity 0.7 Pmax on graph P vs I. And example: if there is lots of light at the surface it's good to have high Ik.

Front 21

How do phytoplankton compete for nutrients?

Back 21

They compete dependent on size. Smaller cells can have a higher umax than a large cell.

Front 22

What is the light attenuation coefficient and what factors regulate light attenuation in lakes.

Back 22

The ratio of light being absorbed in an aquatic ecosystem. Factors amount of biological and non-photosynthetic particles, and probably depth?

Front 23

What is the Redfield Ratio and why is this important with respect to competition for limiting resources?

Back 23

It is a ratio of C-N-P. A cell requires to maintain this ratio to survive. If there were situations in a system where one of these nutrients become limiting to the point where not everyone can maintain the ration then competition for that resource would occur.

Front 24

Terrestrial photosynthetic systems rely on chlorophyll a and b, so why does the aquatic photosynthetic system rely more on other pigments such that we classify algae based on their pigments?

Back 24

In aquatic systems wavelengths in light are absorbed differently and so aquatic photosynthetic organisms adapted pigments that utilize different wavelengths.

Front 25

What is an upwelling even and why are these important with repsect to the production potetial of large lakes.

Back 25

It is an event caused by the tilting of the thermocline where we get cold water rising up from the bottom bringing nutrients, and warm water sinking downward into the bottom parts of the lake.

Front 26

What is redox potential and how does redox regulate the bioavailability of nutrients?

Back 26

Redox is potential is electron activity. In some redox conditions, such as a low redox, we can get ions reacting with another making some nutrients potentially bioavailable.

Front 27

What is luxury uptake and why is this important in maintaining phytoplankton populations.

Back 27

This a survival technique whereby bigger cells will uptake more nutirents than what is required to compensate for times of poor nutrient availability.

Front 28

What is light inihbition of photosynthesis and why is this important with respect to the status of the ozone layer?

Back 28

This is when the intensity of light is so high it drops the potential for chllorophyll a from being productive. And ozone depletion allows for more UV light to enter the system resulting in decreased photosynthesis rates.