TOPIC 5

FRESHWATER &
OCEANS
Distribution of Earths Water
The Hydrological Cycle

The hydrological cycle runs day and night, free of charge, collecting, purifying,
and distributing water. Along its, it serves humans and other living creatures in a
multitude of ways.

The water cycle is driven by evaporation and precipitation. Evaporation occurs

when water molecules escape from surface waters, soil, and plants, becoming
suspended in air.

When water molecules depart, they leave behind impurities. Thus, evaporated
water is free of contamination until it mixes with atmospheric pollutants from
human and natural sources.
The Hydrological Cycle
1. Evaporation from leaves draws water and dissolved nutrients up from the roots through stems,
helping to nourish plant cells. Evaporative loss of water from leaves called transpiration.

2. The loss of water from the soil and leaves is called evapotranspiration.

3. As evaporated water rises, it expends due to pressure decreases. Then, it cools and when air
masses exceeds saturation point, clouds will form.

4. Electrical activity in cloud may increases the rate of collision and enhance the formation of
raindrops.

5. In temperate climates, the temperature in clouds often below freezing point. As a result. Ice
crystal tend to form in the clouds. When crystal reach critical mass, they fall as snowflakes.

6. Clouds move with the winds and deposit their moisture as rain, drizzle, snow, hail and sleet
also known as precipitation.
The Freshwater
 Global Water Consumption

70% - used for crop and livestock production

20% - industrial use
10% - domestic use
(year 2006)

As population increases, demand for

agriculture, industry and personal use will
rise significantly, causing greater water
shortages.
Groundwater Aquifers

Much of the world's unfrozen freshwater exist as groundwater.

The water must usually be pump to the surface, which is expensive and replaced very slowly.

An aquifer constantly gains water that percolates down from the surface. Its recharge area of
land from which the aquifer is filled.
 1. Rain percolate down through the soil, rock and gravel

2. In the rock layers, some of the spaces contain water

and air zone of aeration

3. Further down, the rock spaces are all filled with water
zone of saturation

4. The upper surface of the zone of saturation is called

the water table.

The zone of saturation loses water slowly to the surface

through spring, or to rivers, lakes and the ocean.

When water is withdrawn from an aquifer faster than the

aquifer is recharged, the aquifer is said to have an
overdraft.
Well and Spring

A spring is a natural flow of groundwater onto the surface of the earth.

The differences in water table height in different parts of an aquifer generate hydraulic
pressure at the lower points. This may produce an artesian well, a spring that spouts out of
the ground.
Between tap water and groundwater (well), which one you prefer?
Why?
 Colorado river is dying

Impacts of Excessive Water Withdrawals

It can cause neighbouring habitat especially wetlands and river to
disappear.

Overuse also causes aquifers to dry up completely, driving farmers

out of business.

Groundwater overdraft (the removal of groundwater at a rate

faster than it is replenished) has severe long-term implications
saltwater intrusion

When the water is withdrawn, the soil compacts and sinks, a

process called subsidence.

Saltwater intrusion 50 m sinkhole - Florida

Impacts of Dams and Reservoirs

Dams are built to generate electricity

Reservoirs behind dams provide recreational

opportunities such as fishing, waterskiing and boating.

Dams help to control floods.

In developing countries, dams built for irrigation,

hydropower and drinking water often flood valuable
farmland.
Dams can interrupt migration of salmon on the Pacific Northwest and damage the natural habitat in
the ecosystem.

Dams also flood the habitat of other species, such as bear, deer as well as human. For example
Chinas mammoth Three Gorges Dam had displaced 1.4 million people in 20 towns.

Dams generally release the coldest water from the bottom of the reservoir. This makes stream water
exceedingly cold year-round and decreases the spawning native species.

Three Gorges Dam

The diversion of water can also have impacts on people and local economies. For example
excessive water withdrawal from two rivers that once fed the Aral Sea in the former Union has
completely dried up one river.

Because freshwater inflow has all but stopped. The concentration of salts in the sea has rises,
killing off 20 of the 24 commercial fish species in the sea.

The Aral Sea

Name THREE impacts of excessive water withdrawal.
Water Conservation

1. Restoring Watersheds and Wetlands

2. Water Recycling

3. Changing Government Policies

Restoring Watersheds and Wetlands

Restoration of vegetation in watersheds can be done by replanting forests and grasslands.

Revegetation reduces sedimentation in streams and reservoirs. Thus, reducing the costs for
water purification, providing an economic benefit and protect fish and aquatic organisms as
an ecological benefit.

Revegetation also helps reduce surface runoff and thus enhances the infiltration of water into
the soil, increasing groundwater supplies.
Water Recycling

In Tokyo for example, Mitsubishis 60-storey office building has a

fully automated recycling system that purifies all of the building
wastewater to drinking water purify.

In some cases, it may be advantageous not to fully purify water as

nutrient rich in urban wastewater can be applied to pastures and
cropland.

Urban Farming at Work in Tokyo

Changing Government Policies

Since 1996, all states in USA require that toilets installed in remodeled homes uses no
more than 5.8 liters of water per flush.

Toilets use 30 to 40% of the indoor water consumed by a family, so water conserving
model can generate significant savings.
How can a watershed be restored?
Flooding: Problems and Solutions

Causes of flooding

Sparsely vegetated areas as a result of overgrazes pastures or clear cuts, will increased
surface runoff and flooding.

The strip of vegetation from the land increases surface runoff. Water flowing rapidly over
the into streams and often spills over their banks, flooding nearby areas.

Flooding in urban areas often results from highways, airports, shopping centers, office
building and homes, which greatly increase the amount of impermeable surface.
Destruction of wetlands, swamps along rivers, is also responsible for increased flooding.

Wetlands act as sponges, holding water and releasing it slowly into nearby waterways. Their loss
eliminates this benefit and is thus partly responsible for the growing severity of floods in many
countries.

Tsunami 2004
Controlling flooding

Leeves are embankments constructed along the banks of rivers to hold floodwaters
back temporary measures.

Another technique for reducing flooding are cutting or bulldozing vegetation along
a streams banks and deepening and strengthening river channels.

Watershed management includes steps to reduce deforestation and overgrazing. It

also include measures to protect and restore wetlands in watersheds.
Watershed management

First, mining, farming and housing can be regulated to ensure minimal runoff.

Second, in areas where the landscape has been altered by human activities, efforts can be
made to restore vegetation.

Some developer are even developing, holding ponds under parking lots to absorb runoff and
slowly release it into nearby stream. They use a special high-strength porous plastic call rain
stone to create a chamber to temporarily store water after rainstorms.
The Oceans
Worlds Ocean
Ocean resources
The two main differences between freshwater and ocean water are that the ocean contains
more salts and is constantly moved by the tides.

It supplies oil, minerals, energy, much of our oxygen, and nearly one quarter of the protein
with it.

It also acts as a great reservoir of dissolved gases that held to regulate the composition of
the air by absorbing much of the carbon dioxide we produce by burning fossil fuels.

Ocean currents also affect the climate. Without the Gulf Stream, much of temperate
Western Europe would have a very cold climate.
Ecosystems associated with the Ocean

1. Wetlands

Wetlands soil are typically saturated with water

Inland wetlands are found along streams, lakes, rivers and ponds; they include bogs,
marshes, swamps, that are wet at least part of the year

Coastal wetlands are wet or flooded regions along coastlines, typically associated with
estuaries, the mouth of rivers where freshwater mixes with saltwater (e.g mangrove swamps,
salt marshes, bays, lagoons)
Ecological functions of wetlands:

1. Wildlife habitat wetlands are home to hundreds of species of plants and animals that cannot
survive elsewhere

2. Flood control wetlands are able to absorb large amount of water when it rains and rivers rise,
so they provide flood control

3. Water purification wetland plants absorb enormous quantities of pollutants, which is why
artificial wetlands are being built in many areas to clean up the water from sewage plants

4. Nutrient recycling when water flows through a marsh, plants remove most of the nutrients in
the water, preventing them from washing out to sea
2. Estuaries

Estuaries are the mouth of rivers, where freshwater and saltwater mix. Estuaries are critical habitat
for fish and shellfish.

Because fish are an important of food, protection of the estuarine zone in vital to feeding the
worlds people. It has an economic benefit as well.

The estuarine zone is subject to pollution, water loss, dredging, and habitat alteration.

Shrimp farm in Thailand

3. Coastal Beaches

A beach/coast is a landform along a body of water and barrier between land and sea.

There are three main types of zone along beach/coast: Rocky, sandy and muddy shores

Mud flats occur where the water moves slowly enough to deposit sediment. Algae cover the
mud and make up the food of numerous molluscs, such as oysters and clams, and
crustaceans such as shrimp and lobsters.
Sandy beaches are less stable than mud flats, for sand shifts constantly and dries up more rapidly
than mud when the tide is out.

Rocky shores support a large variety of plant and animal live such as shrimp, lobsters, octopuses,
scallops and hundreds of species of fish.
4. Reef
The reef it self is made up of material containing calcium that is secreted by the coral animals and
by red and green algae.

Because photosynthetic algae are important to their formation, coral reefs are found only in clear
shallow water, where there is enough light for photosynthesis.

The reef provides anchorage for algae and animals. Many fish and swimming invertebrates shelter in
crevices of the reef.

In recent years, reefs have also suffered more and more from coral bleaching, turning white
because their algae have died.
In your opinion, which is the most productive ecosystem?
Why?
International Cooperation

1. The International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships

(MARPOL)

MARPOL is the main international convention covering prevention of pollution of the marine
environment by ships from operational or accidental causes.

In an enclosed areas such as the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas and the Persian Gulf,
discharge is prohibited. To Trace illegal dumping, oil cargos are sometimes fingerprinted with
additives, so authorities know the source of a particular spill.
2. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

UNCLOS is an international treaty that provides a regulatory framework for the use of the
worlds seas and oceans, to ensure the conservation and equitable usage of resources and the
marine environment and to ensure the protection and preservation of the living resources of
the sea.

UNCLOS also addresses such other matters as sovereignty, rights of usage in maritime zones,
and navigational rights. As of January 10 2014, 166 States have ratified, acceded to, or
succeeded to, UNCLOS.
The Arctic and Antarctic

Much of the Arctic lies over the continental shelves of the surrounding landmasses. It supports
some of the riches fishing grounds, accounting for about one tenth of the global catch. Because
the Arctic circle and closes only an ocean and the fringes of populated countries, its ocean
resources are control by laws that govern oceans and coastal areas elsewhere in the world.

The Antarctic is different, largely because it has never been colonized by human population.

By 1943, seven nations (Argentina, Chile, Australia, Norway, France, New Zealand and the United
Kingdom) claim parts of Antarctica on the grounds of proximity or because their citizen has
explored it. Thirty years later, the Antarctic Treaty was signed by these claimants as well as by
Japan, the United States, the Soviet Union, South Africa and Belgium. The treaty group is a small
one and meet in secret. Developing nations charge that the group is a last stand of a capitalist
colonialism, designed to keep at international resource for the benefit of developed nations.
Conservationist promote the idea that Antarctica should be a world wildlife preserve but nations
that covet Antarcticas mineral reserves are unlikely to agree to this. Pending a long term
solution, Antarctica need some short term measures to prevent further depletion of it resources.