Water We have here?Guiding Question: How can we, as chemists, determine the health of the water in our backyard wetland to extend the knowledge to other countries? Lines of Inquiry:
Entry Video: Water Cycle Song(She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain)
Water travels in a cycle, yes it does. Water travels in a cycle, yes it does. It goes up as evaporation, the clouds make condensation, it rains down precipitation, yes it does. Runoff Video
Water Cycle ResourcesStreams in the City Article - click to access the article
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Bill Nye the Science Guy: Wetlands
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Wetland article
What is a wetland?
Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for certain periods of time during the year, including during the growing season.
San Diego County Wetlands
Unlike East coast wetlands, Southern California’s inland wetlands are generally dry in summer, and wet only when saturated by storms or local runoff. Most of San Diego’s coastal wetlands are open to the ocean’s tides, and experience an ever-changing mixture of saltwater and fresh that supports a tremendous variety of wildlife. The most typical San Diego County wetlands are salt marsh, freshwater marsh, and riparian habitats. Though not a wetland, San Diego’s upland chaparral habitat surrounds and impacts the watershed.
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that form where rivers empty into the sea. Our closest coastal wetland is the Buena Vista Lagoon. Because of the influx of freshwater into the system, the salinity in salt marshes changes seasonally as river flow increases in winter and decreases in summer.
Salt marshes are affected by the rise and fall of the tides. As they recede, tides carry some of the living and dead matter from the marsh to the ocean where the matter becomes food for many ocean animals.
When the tide comes back in, it brings minerals and salts from the ocean. Minerals and salts fertilize the plant life in the marsh. Salt marshes are among the most productive habitats in the world. Many marine animals spend part or all of their lives in a salt marsh.
Riparian streamsides
San Diego’s high tabletop mesas are split by rugged canyons and broad valleys that were carved out by eons of runoff water, creating a complex drainage system of rivers and creeks that flow into the sea.
At the bottoms of these canyons and valleys we find the streamside or riparian (riverbank) community. Even where the streams are only seasonal, there is still enough water to support large, thirsty trees like sycamores, coast live oaks, and cottonwoods. All plants take in and eliminate water, and sycamores are particularly heavy drinkers. A single tree needs 300 gallons a day to survive—that’s six bathtubs-full!
San Diego’s streamsides are some of its pleasantest locations. Besides the trees, there are tall leafy shrubs like arroyo (creek) willows and mulefat, and water-loving plants like wild roses, California fuchsia, and, less welcome, but undeniably pretty in autumn, poison oak. Foxes, bobcats, deer, raccoons, and many smaller animals and reptiles find these areas good places to live, with plenty of water, food, and shelter. In spring, resident hawks, owls, and woodpeckers share the trees with colorful migrants like orioles, flycatchers, and tanagers.
Native peoples, too, found streamsides attractive. They liked to set up their camps near water, gather acorns from the live oaks, and use convenient granite boulders for acorn grinding. Centuries of patient pounding hollowed out bowl-like depressions in the granite, sure signs of Indian presence.
Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil all year or for certain periods of time during the year, including during the growing season.
San Diego County Wetlands
Unlike East coast wetlands, Southern California’s inland wetlands are generally dry in summer, and wet only when saturated by storms or local runoff. Most of San Diego’s coastal wetlands are open to the ocean’s tides, and experience an ever-changing mixture of saltwater and fresh that supports a tremendous variety of wildlife. The most typical San Diego County wetlands are salt marsh, freshwater marsh, and riparian habitats. Though not a wetland, San Diego’s upland chaparral habitat surrounds and impacts the watershed.
Salt marshes are coastal wetlands that form where rivers empty into the sea. Our closest coastal wetland is the Buena Vista Lagoon. Because of the influx of freshwater into the system, the salinity in salt marshes changes seasonally as river flow increases in winter and decreases in summer.
Salt marshes are affected by the rise and fall of the tides. As they recede, tides carry some of the living and dead matter from the marsh to the ocean where the matter becomes food for many ocean animals.
When the tide comes back in, it brings minerals and salts from the ocean. Minerals and salts fertilize the plant life in the marsh. Salt marshes are among the most productive habitats in the world. Many marine animals spend part or all of their lives in a salt marsh.
Riparian streamsides
San Diego’s high tabletop mesas are split by rugged canyons and broad valleys that were carved out by eons of runoff water, creating a complex drainage system of rivers and creeks that flow into the sea.
At the bottoms of these canyons and valleys we find the streamside or riparian (riverbank) community. Even where the streams are only seasonal, there is still enough water to support large, thirsty trees like sycamores, coast live oaks, and cottonwoods. All plants take in and eliminate water, and sycamores are particularly heavy drinkers. A single tree needs 300 gallons a day to survive—that’s six bathtubs-full!
San Diego’s streamsides are some of its pleasantest locations. Besides the trees, there are tall leafy shrubs like arroyo (creek) willows and mulefat, and water-loving plants like wild roses, California fuchsia, and, less welcome, but undeniably pretty in autumn, poison oak. Foxes, bobcats, deer, raccoons, and many smaller animals and reptiles find these areas good places to live, with plenty of water, food, and shelter. In spring, resident hawks, owls, and woodpeckers share the trees with colorful migrants like orioles, flycatchers, and tanagers.
Native peoples, too, found streamsides attractive. They liked to set up their camps near water, gather acorns from the live oaks, and use convenient granite boulders for acorn grinding. Centuries of patient pounding hollowed out bowl-like depressions in the granite, sure signs of Indian presence.