Topic 4.

1 Introduction to water systems:

Hydrological cycle:
The hydrological cycle is the continuous movement of water above and below the surface of the
earth.
- Energy from solar radiation and the force of gravity drive the water cycle.

Human impacts on the water cycle: ESSAY

1. Withdrawals – domestic use, irrigation in agriculture and industry.

2. Discharges – adding pollutants to water, e.g., chemicals from agriculture, fertilizers, sewage.

3. Changing the speed at which water can flow and where it flows.
- In cities by building roads and channeling rivers underground or in concreted areas.
- Dams, barrages and making reservoirs.

4. Diverting rivers or sections of rivers:

- Many are diverted away from important areas to avoid flood damage.
 - Some are diverted towards dams to improve storage.

Ocean currents and energy distribution:

- Ocean currents have an important role in the global distribution of energy.
Surface currents:
- Ocean currents that are moved by the wind.
- The earth’s rotation deflects them and increases their circular movement.
Deeper water currents:
- They are due to differences in water density caused by salt and temperature.
- Warm water can hold less salt, than cold water so is less dense and rises.
- Cold water holds more salt, is denser so sinks.
- When warm water rises, cold has to come up from depth to replace it. These are upwellings.
- When cold water rises, it too has to be replaced by warm water in downwelling's.
- In this way, water circulates.

Ocean currents and climate:

- Water has a higher specific heat capacity (the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of a
unit of matter by 1ºC) than land. This means that water masses heat up and cool down more
slowly than landmasses.
- As a result, land close to seas and oceans has a mild climate with moderate winters

4.2 Access to Water:

Sustainability of freshwater resource usage:
- Sustainable use of resources allows full natural replacement of the resource exploited and full
recovery of the ecosystems affected by their extraction and use.
- Sources of freshwater are surface freshwater (rivers, streams, reservoirs, and lakes) and
underground aquifers. The water can be extracted directly from surface of via wells from
aquifers.
Aquifer:
- An aquifer is a layer of porous rock (holds water) within two layers of impermeable rock (does
not let water through).
- They are filled continuously by infiltration of precipitation where the porous rock reaches the
surface,
 - Water flow in aquifer is pretty slow. Hence, aquifers are often used unsustainably.

Notes:
- Global freshwater consumption is increasing strongly because the human population is
increasing and because the average quality of life is improving.
- This leads to two main problems = water scarcity and water degradation (loss of quality).
ESSAY:
Issues: Solutions:
- Climate change is disrupting rainfall Increase freshwater supplies by:
patterns. - Reservoirs
- Low water levels in rivers and - Redistribution
streams. - Desalination plants removing salt
- Industries release pollutants into from seawater.
surface water bodies. - Rainwater harvesting systems – large
- Fertilizers and pesticides used in and small scale.
agriculture often pollute streams. - Artificially recharging aquifers.
- Irrigation often results in soil Other solutions:
degradation, especially in dry areas. - Reduce domestic use of freshwater by
Much of the water used in irrigation using more water-efficient showers,
evaporates before it is absorbed by the dishwasher and toilets.
crops. Dissolved minerals remain in - Irrigation: selecting drought resistant
the top layer of the soil, making it too crops can reduce the need for
saline (salty) for further agriculture. irrigation. (Some areas may simply by
This process is called salinization. unsustainable for growing crops; cattle
- Industries and electricity plants release grazing may be better.)
warm water into rivers. Warm water - Replace chemical fertilizers with
can hold less dissolved oxygen than organic ones.
cold water, so aquatic organisms that - Industries can remove pollutants from
take their oxygen from the water (fish) their wastewater with water treatment
are negatively affected. plants.
- Regulate maximum temperatures of
released cooling water, cooling towers
that evaporate the water can be used.

4.3 Aquatic food production systems:

Primary producers:
 - Phytoplankton are single-celled organisms that can photosynthesize and are the most important
producer in the oceans, producing 99% of primary productivity.

Zones with the highest and lowest productivity:

- The continental shelf has 50% of oceanic productivity but 15% of its area.
- Deep oceans where light does not reach have low productivity as the only food sources are
chemotrophs and dead organic matter that descends from above.
Notes:
- Benthic – Living on or in the seabed.
- Pelagic – Living surrounded by water from above the seabed to the surface.

Fisheries – industrial farming and hunting:

- Fishery = A fishery exists when fish are harvested in some way. It includes capture of wild fish
and aquaculture or fish farming.
- Fisheries include Shellfish (Oysters) and some vertebrates (tuna).
- The global fish catch is no longer increasing even though technology has improved. Demand is
high and rising but fishermen cannot find or catch enough fish. But aquaculture has increased
greatly.

Aquaculture:
- Aquaculture = Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms in both coastal and inland areas
involving interventions in the rearing process to enhance production.
- Wild fish catch have decreased because either there is no longer fish available because we have
exploited them or we cannot take more than a sustainable yield.
Ways in which fish farming is becoming more sustainable are:
- Fishmeal uses more trimmings and scraps which would have been wasted in the past.
- Livestock and poultry processing waste is substituted for fishmeal.
Value of the aquaculture:
- Habitat
- Chemicals for fish catching.
- Food provision.
- Economics.
- Sustainability.
Impacts of fish farms include:
- Loss of habitats.
- Pollution from medicines given to fishes.
- Spread of diseases.
- Escaped species may outcompete native specieis and cause population to crash.

Unsustainable wild fishing industry:

- Fish stocks are a resource under pressure, being exploited by overfishing.
- Technology development is the main cause for this.
- Larger fleets
- Satellite technology and GPS to locate large fish bodies.
Solutions:
- By giving fish a refuge to breed and mature in, reserves can increase the size and total number of
fish both in the reserve and in the surrounding waters.
- Consumers can promote healthy fishery production by eating less fish and buying seafood from
well-managed stocked fisheries.
- Policies and regulations.
- Education
- Economic incentives.
Tragedy of the commons:
- Tragedy of the commons = Tragedy of the commons refers to a situation where individuals
with access to a shared resource act in their own interest, which as a result leads to over-
exploitation and the depletion of the resource.
- The solution for this is often regulation and legislation.
Maximum sustainable yield (MSY):
- Maximum sustainable yield = Maximum sustainable yield is the optimum harvest that can be
obtained annually without affecting the standing stock and its ability to replenish itself.
- The carrying capacity for each species depends on: its reproductive strategy, its longevity,
and resources of the habitat/ecosystem.
 - Harvesting the maximum sustainable yield normally leads to population decline and thus loss of
resource base and an unsustainable industry or fishery.
REASONS FOR THIS:
- Population dynamics are predicted and not quantitatively counted.
- Often impossible to be precise of the size of the population.
- Estimates are made on previous experience.
Optimal sustainable yield:
- Requires less effort than MSY and maximizes the difference between the total revenue and total
cost.
- It has a much greater safety margin than MSY but still may have an impact on population size if
there are other environmental pressures within a system.
 4.4 Water pollution:

Types of water pollution:

- Anthropogenic = created by human activities.
- Point source = Contamination can be traced to specific point of discharge from wastewater
treatment plants and factories.
- Non-point source = Contamination cannot be traced to a specific point of discharge (e.g. plastic
pollution).
- Direct = Direct means that the pollution has come from specific sources (e.g. factories)
- Indirect = Indirect means that the pollution that has entered the water supply from
soils/groundwater. vc
Organic:
Pollutant: Effects:
Sewage (e.g., human waste) - Eutrophication and smell.
Animal waste (e.g., manure cow shit) - Eutrophication and smell.
Biological detergents (e.g., washing - Eutrophication and smell.
powders)
Pesticides from agriculture (e.g., - Loss of biodiversity.
Insecticides/herbicides)
Invasive species (e.g., cane toads) - Decimates indigenous species).
Pathogens (e.g., fecal pathogens) - Diseases.

Inorganic:
Nitrates and phosphates (e.g., fertilizers) - Eutrophication, changes biodiversity.
Heavy toxic metals (e.g., industry and motor - Bioaccumulation and
vehicles) biomagnification in food chains,
poisonous.
Light (e.g., cities) - Disrupts habitat for whales and turtles.

Noise (e.g., aircraft) - Disrupts habitat for whales and turtles.

Hot water (e.g., power stations) - Changes physical property of water,

kills fish, changes biodiversity.
Radioactive Pollution (e.g., nuclear power - Radiation sickness
 stations)
Oil (e.g., industry) - Reduces oxygen levels.

Both:
Suspended solids (e.g., silt from construction - Damage corals and filter feeders.
sites)
Floating debris (e.g., trash) - Suffocate animals

Measuring water pollution:

- pH
- Temperature
- Suspended solids (turbidity)
- Metals
- Nitrates
- Phosphates

Indicator species (ESSAY) = Indicator species are plants and animals that show something about the
environment by their presence, absence, abundance or scarcity.
Biotic index (ESSAY) = A biotic index indirectly measures pollution by assessing the impact on species
within the community according to their tolerance, diversity and relative abundance.

Eutrophication:
- Eutrophication = Eutrophication can occur when lakes, receives inputs of nutrients (nitrates and
phosphates) which result in an excess growth of plants and phytoplankton.

Impacts of eutrophication:
- Oxygen deficient water
- Loss of biodiversity.
- Death of aerobic organisms – invertebrates, fish and amphibians.
- Increased turbidity (cloudiness) of water.
The excess nutrients are nitrates and phosphates and they come from:
- Detergents
- Fertilizers
- Drainage from intensive livestock
- Sewage
Impact of biodegradation of organic materials:
Biodegradation of organic material uses up oxygen which can lead to anoxic (low oxygen) conditions
and then anaerobic decomposition.

The process of eutrophication:

1. Fertilizers wash into the river or lake.
2. High levels of phosphates allow algae to grow faster.
3. Algal blooms form that blocks out light to plants beneath them, which die.
4. More algae mean more food for zooplankton and small animals that feed on them. They are food
to fish which multiply as there is more food so there are then fewer zooplankton to eat the algae.
5. Algae die and are decomposed by aerobic bacteria.
6. But there is not enough oxygen in the water so, soon, everything dies as food chains collapse.
7. Oxygen levels falls lower. Dead organic material forms sediments on the lake or riverbed and
turbidity increases.
8. Eventually, all life is gone, and the sediment settles to leave a clear blue lake.

Negative feedback loop = more species feeding on algae, reducing the number of algae. This allows the
river to move back towards equilibrium.

Positive feedback loop = Rising algal growth blocks light to other plants which die, release more
nutrients into the water which allows more algae to grow. This makes the river move away from
equilibrium to its tipping point.

Water pollution management: ESSAY

Altering human activity: - Campaigns
- Education (educate farmers)
- Ban and limit detergents/fertilizers with phosphates.
- Community groups
- Government legislation
- Economic taxes.
Controlling release of - Legislation and regulating standards of emission.
pollutant: - Developing/applying technologies for extracting
pollutant from emissions.
- Divert or treat sewage waste.
Clean-up and restoration of - Extracting and recovering pollutant from ecosystems.
damaged systems: - Pumping air through lakes.
- Restock ponds or water bodies with appropriate
organisms.

CASE STUDY: NILE RIVER

Egypt – 97% reliant on the water from the Nile, recent water shortages affected farming and
they had to import food. They have the Aswan dam for irrigation and electricity generation.

Ethiopia – Less economically developed, 2011 plans launched for a dam to relieve their
population’s water supply and generate electricity.

- Egypt demanded that they stop the dam – 2014 Ethiopia declined evaporation,
pollution, salinization, reduced river flow, land degradation, droughts, and floods are
all concerns.
CASE STUDY: JORDAN RIVER

Israel – 2008 40% water came from Sea of Galilee, Israel has water supply problems,
generated through drought and population increase along with economic advancement –
people water gardens and clean cars – using more water than previously.

Jordan – Part of the political peace agreement between the two countries means that Isreal
must continue to provide water for Jordan – whose drought is much worse.

Solutions:
- Israel instigated a number of solutions to the crisis – Desalinization plants were builkt
and five now provide water taken from the sea and almost ½ the water used for
agriculture comes from 250 recycled water reservoirs.
- 85% of sewage water is recycled and reused (highest rate in the world).
- Palestine = Israel uses 80% of the West Bank Mountain aquifer water supply, leaving
only 20% for the neighboring country Palestine. Supporting Jewish west bank
communities with 3 times more water than the Palestinian communities. This is one of
many areas of dispute between the two countries, which are currently at war.

CASE STUDY: COD (MARINE FISH)

GRAND BANKS (NEWFOUNDLAND):

- An island off Canada used to fish cod from the Atlantic Ocean. Overfishing 1992
closed the fishery as the stocks were so low, after 20 years the populations have still
not recovered.

SCOTLAND AND NORTH SEA:

- Numbers of Cod are now ½ the catch now compared to 50 years ago. 1970s Iceland v/s
UK “Cod Wars”.

MANAGEMENT:
- Fisheries are closed to industry (e.g., Newfoundland)
- Education of consumers which species of fish are sustainably fished etc (e.g., The
Marine Stewardship Council, stop subsidizing the fishing fleets and allow the quotas to
be traded – then fewer fish raise more profits).
CASE STUDY: WHALE HUNTING (INUIT AND JAPANESE)
- Indigenous culture v/s endangered species rights.
 - North America, Alaska, Inuit hunt one species of whale in small numbers – it forms the
main protein of their diet. Greenland Inuit combined are allowed a quota from the
International Whaling commission (IWC) both have whale meat as part of their
subsistence fishery Environmental groups are still against this, as larger commercial
whaling ships depleted populations to dangerously low levels (e.g., Japan and Russia)
they argue no whaling should occur.
- South Antarctica is currently a whale sanctuary since 1994 – no whaling can take place
there.
CASE STUDY: ATLANTIC SALMON
- Wild Salmon lived in the North Atlantic and Baltic seas, overfishing crashed
populations.
- Now produced in fish farms – fish kept in high densities, pollution in the form of food,
feces, and chemicals leak into the wild oceans. Farmed salmon who escape and breed
with the wild populations weaken genetic diversity and endanger the breed.