Aquatic Environment

EM-605 CHHAVI CHOUDHARY

Environmental 00416304720
Geosciences
and Natural Disasters
The aquatic environment can be defined as interacting system of
resources such as water and biota. The world has a variety of lotic
and lentic aquatic environments. The dynamics of aquatic
environment depends on the properties of water. Environmental
forces such as temperature, light, dissolved oxygen, current,
population density that impinge on the life of aquatic animals are
complex and interrelated in their effects.

What is aquatic
environment?
Lentic ecosystem
A lentic ecosystem entails a body of standing water, ranging from ditches,
seeps, ponds, seasonal pools, basin marshes and lakes. Deeper waters, such as
lakes, may have layers of ecosystems, influenced by light. Ponds, due to their
having more light penetration, are able to support a diverse range of water
plants.

Lotic ecosystem
A lotic ecosystem can be any kind of moving water, such as a run, creek,
brook, river, spring, channel or stream. The water in a lotic ecosystem, from
source to mouth, must have atmospheric gases, turbidity, longitudinal
temperature gradation and material dissolved in it. Lotic ecosystems have two
main zones, rapids (areas where the water is fast enough to keep the bottom
clear of materials and pools (deeper areas of water where the currents are
slower and silt builds up)
The hydrological cycle describes the path of a water droplet
from the time it falls to the ground until it evaporates and
returns to our atmosphere.
The hydrological cycle describes exchanges of water between
the oceans, atmosphere, land surface, biosphere, soils,
groundwater systems, and the solid Earth. Evaporation and
precipitation over the world's oceans dominate the fluxes within
the global water cycle and are truly prolific. 

Hydrological cycle
There is tremendous turnover within the global water cycle; the
average residence time of a water molecule in the atmosphere is
about 9.2 days. Roughly 90% of water molecules cycle quickly
through the atmosphere, evaporating and precipitating over the
world's oceans. Water vapor that is blown inland and precipitates
over the continents has a more circuitous path back to the oceans,
and can get diverted and stored in snow packs, vegetation, soils,
wetlands, lakes, or groundwater systems. Water molecules can be
‘recycled’ many times on the continents, through cycles
of evapotranspiration and precipitation. Eventually, rivers and
subsurface drainage systems return this water to the ocean, and
over a period of a year or more this discharge equals the net
evaporation minus precipitation from the oceans. This must be true
or global sea level would be highly unstable. 
The Hydrological Cycle
Seafloor spreading is a geologic process in which tectonic plates
—large slabs of Earth's lithosphere split apart from each other.
Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries. As
tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, heat from
the mantle’s convection currents makes
the crust more plastic and less dense. The less-dense material
rises, often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor.
Seafloor spreading occurs along mid-ocean ridges—
large mountain ranges rising from the ocean floor.

Sea floor spreading

The hot buoyant mantle rises up a mid-ocean ridge, causing the ridge to rise
upward. The hot magma at the ridge erupts as lava that forms new seafloor. When
the lava cools, the magnetite crystals take on the current magnetic polarity and as
more lava erupts, it pushes the seafloor horizontally away from ridge axis. The
magnetic stripes continue across the seafloor. As oceanic crust forms and spreads,
moving away from the ridge crest, it pushes the continent away from the ridge
axis. If the oceanic crust reaches a deep sea trench, it sinks into the trench and is
lost into the mantle. The oldest crust is coldest and lies deepest in the ocean
because it is less buoyant than the hot new crust. Seafloor spreading is the
mechanism for Wegener’s drifting continents. Convection currents within the
mantle take the continents on a conveyor-belt ride of oceanic crust that over
millions of years takes them around the planet’s surface.

Seafloor spreading
hypothesis(1960)
Sea floor spreading
The six ways of formation of lakes
1. Earth Movement
(a) Tectonic Lakes:
Due to the warping, sagging, bending and fracturing of the
earth’s crust, tectonic depressions occur. Such depressions give
rise to lakes of immense sizes and depths.
They include Lake Titicaca, the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior.

Formation of lakes
(b) Rift Valley Lakes:
Due to faulting, a rift valley is formed by the sinking of land
between two parallel faults, deep, narrow and elongated in charac­
ter. Water collects in these troughs and their floors are often
below sea level. Examples are the East African Rift Valley lake
Tanganyika, Malawi, Rudolf, Edward and the Dead Sea.
 2. Glaciation:
(a) Cirque Lakes or Tarns:
A glacier on its way down the valley leaves behind circular hollows
in the heads of the valleys up in the mountains. Such hollows are the
arm-chair-shaped cirques or corries. Their over-deepened floors may
be filled with water to become cirque lakes e.g. Red Tarn in the
English Lake District. Those that occupy glacial troughs are long and
deep and are termed ribbon lakes, e.g. Lake Ullswater.
(b) Kettle Lakes:
These are depressions in the outwash plain left by the melting of
masses of stagnant ice. They are irregular because of the uneven
moraines' surface and are never of any great size or depth e.g. the
meres of Shropshire in England, and the kettle-lakes of Orkney in
Scotland.
(c) Rock-Hollow Lakes:
These are formed by ice-scouring when valley glaciers or ice
sheets scoop out hollows on the surface. Such lakes of glacial
origin are abundant in Finland

(d) Lakes Due to the Deposition of Glacial Drifts:

In glaciated lowlands with a predominant drumlin landscape,
where drainage is poor, there are inter­vening depressions.
These depressions are often water-logged, forming small
lakes like those of County Down in Northern Ireland.
(e) Lakes Due to Morainic Damming of Valleys:
Valley glaciers often deposit morainic debris across a valley so
that lakes are formed when water accumu­lates behind the barrier.
Both lateral and terminal moraines are capable of damming
valleys e.g. Lake Windermere of the Lake District, England.
 3. Volcanic Activity:
(a) Crater and Caldera Lakes:
During a volcanic explosion the top of the cone may be blown off
leaving behind a natural hollow called a crater. This may be
enlarged by subsidence into a caldera. These depressions are
normally dry, bounded by steep cliffs and roughly circular in
shape. In dormant or extinct volcanoes, rain falls straight into the
crater or caldera which has no superficial outlet and forms a crater
or caldera lake. The outstanding ones are the Crater Lake in
Oregon, U.S.A., Lake Toba in northern Sumatra and Lake
Avernus near Naples 
(b) Lava-Blocked Lakes:
In volcanic regions a stream of lava may flow across a valley,
become solidi­fied and thus dam the river forming a lake, e.g. a
lava flow blocks the Jordan valley forming the Sea of Galilee
which is an inland lake.
(c) Lakes Due to Subsidence of a Volcanic Land Surface:
The crust of a hollow lava flow may collapse. The subsidence
leaves behind a wide and shallow depression in which a lake may
form, e.g. Myvatn of Iceland.
 4. Erosion:
(a) Wind-Deflated Lakes:
The deflating action of winds in deserts creates hollows. These
may reach ground water which seeps out forming small, shallow
lakes. Excessive evaporation causes these to become salt lakes
and playas. These are found in the Qattara Depression in Egypt,
and the Great Basin of Utah, U.S.A.
(b) Karst Lakes:
The solvent action of rain-water on limestone carves out solution
hollows. When these become clogged with debris lakes may form
in them. The collapse of limestone roofs of under­ground caverns
may result in the exposure of long, narrow lakes that were once
underground e.g. the Lac de Chaillexon in the Jura Mountains.
The large depressions called poljes, which normally do not have
surface outlets, may contain lakes. During wet periods these may
cover most of the polje floor but they shrink during dry periods
due to seepage. An example is Lake Scutari in Yugoslavia.
5. Deposition:
(a) Lakes Due to River Deposits:
A river may shorten its course during a flood by cutting across its
meandering loops, leaving behind a horseshoe-shaped channel as
an ox-bow lake, e.g. those that occur on the flood-plains of
Lower Mississippi, U.S.A. and Rio Grande, Mexico.

(b) Lakes Due to Marine Deposits:

The action of winds and waves may isolate lagoons along coasts
by building spits or bars. As these lagoons of shallow water are
enclosed only by a narrow spit of land, comprising mud, sand and
shingle, they may drain away at low tide. They are commonly
found off the deltas of large rivers such as the Nile and the
Ganges.
(c) Lakes Due to Landslide Screes and Avalanches:
Lakes formed by these processes are also known as barrier lakes.
Landslides or screes may block valleys so that rivers are
dammed. Such lakes are short-­lived, because the loose fragments
that pile across the valleys will soon give way under the pressure
of water.
When they suddenly give way, the dammed water rushes down,
causing floods. Examples of lakes of this type are, Lake Gormire
in Yorkshire, blocked by landslides; Ffynnon Freeh on Snowdon
blocked by screes.
6. Human and Biological Activities:
(a) Man-Made Lakes:
Besides the natural lakes, man has now created artificial lakes by
erecting a concrete dam across a river valley so that the river
water can be kept back to form reservoirs. Amongst such man-
made lakes, the most imposing is Lake Mead above the Hoover
Dam on the Colorado River, U.S.A.
(b) Lakes Made by Animals:
Animals like beavers are particularly interesting. They live in
communities and construct dams across the rivers with timber.
Such beaver dams are quite permanent and are found in North
America, e.g. Beaver Lake in Yellowstone National Park, U.S.A.

(c) Other Types of Lakes:

These include ornamen­tal lakes, especially made to attract
tourists, e.g. Lake Gardens, Kuala Lumpur, Taiping Lakes. Man’s
mining activities, e.g. tin mining in West Malaysia, have created
numerous lakes. Inland fish culture has necessitated the creation
of many fishing-lakes. 
ECONOMIC SIGNIFICANCE
OF LAKES
*Water supply :Lakes provide water for domestic use, industrial use
and irrigation purposes.
*Fishing: Lakes are sources of fish and, therefore, contribute to the
protein content in people’s diet.
*Transport: Water offers the cheapest mode of transport. Canoes,
boats and bigger vessels are often used for navigation on Lakes.
*Mining: Some Lakes contain minerals and therefore, promote the
mining industry. For example, salt is mined from Lake Katwe while
soda ash is extracted from Lake Magadi, which is used to make soap,
glass and salt. Sand is obtained from the sand beaches and is used in
the construction industry and the glass industry.
*Hand crafts: Lakes have promoted the development of art and craft
industry in the country.

*Positive aspects of Lakes

* Lakes tend to recharge the atmosphere with water vapor through
evaporation process, thus promoting the formation of convectional
rainfall and regulating the temperature condition.
* Lakes have promoted tourism development that brings in foreign
exchange to the country.
* Lakes have promoted energy sector for example the papyrus plants on
Lake shores have high potential for the development of energy resources
because it is believed to contain Methane gas. This can be harnessed to
produce bio-gas which is a much-needed energy resources for domestic
and even for industrial purposes.
* Lakes are water reservoirs which regulate the flow of rivers. Rivers
passing through such lakes are assured of constant supply of water and
can be dammed to provide hydroelectric power.
* Help to control floods, Promote forestry
* 16.Act as international boundary for example Lake Victoria and Lake
Albert.
* Lakes harbor disease vectors such as water snails transmitting bilharzia, tsetse flies
that cause sleeping sickness and Nagana to animals as well as mosquitoes that cause
malaria.
* Lakes are associated with floods during wet seasons that displace homesteads and
destroy people’s property
* Lake occupy too much space which would have been used for other economic
activities like Agriculture and settlement.
* Lakes have promoted interstate conflicts due to territorial claims.
* Lakes have promoted high levels of profit repatriation by the various foreign
investors in the fisheries sector.
* Lakes have promoted insecurity due to the high levels of piracy especially at the
shores of Lake Victoria and Lake Albert.
* Hindrance to road development.
* Low-lying areas around Lakes are very susceptible to flooding.

*Negative aspects of Lakes

The coast is the area where the land and sea meet. This results in a
special set of environments where the marine and
terrestrial areas influence each other. The term 'coastline' is
normally used to refer to the narrow strip around the country where
land and coastal waters come into direct contact.
Coastal environments are among the most complex regions of the
world's oceans. They are the transition zone between the open
ocean and terrestrial watersheds with important and disparate
spatial and temporal scales occurring in the physical as well as
biogeochemical processes.

Coastal environment
Dunelands have developed along the coastal margin where
sediment has collected and been trapped by vegetation. Between
the dunes, where the water table is high, swamps, wetlands and
even large coastal lakes can form. The wet sand gives these
systems more stability than the surrounding dunes and extensive
plant and wildlife communities can become established. Where the
hollow between the dunes is free of water, extensive sandy plains
can form.

Duneland systems
Estuaries commonly form when rivers meet the sea. Along
sheltered coastlines, estuarine areas provide very ecologically
productive environments, where fertile sediment washed from
the land is trapped in shallow tidal inlets. Estuaries are
important habitats and feeding grounds for a range of
migratory and wading birds. Estuaries are important spawning
and nursery areas for a wide range of fish and shellfish
species.

Estuaries
Wetlands are very diverse; they vary in wetness, fertility,
acidity and salinity. They are influenced by a range of factors
including different landforms, substrates, hydrology and
vegetation and cross both coastal and terrestrial environments.
Swamps are much richer in nutrients than bogs and fens, so
they can be highly fertile. They benefit from both ground and
surface water inflow, carrying nutrients and sediments from
adjacent land. A wide variety of plants can be found in swamps
including sedges

Wetlands
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