Transcript Do You Live In A Watershed? - UNC Institute for the Environment

EGRET Fellows Program
Exploring the Geographical Region and Ecosystems of the Tar-Pamlico Watershed
SUMMER INSTITUTE
June 23-25, 2015
Presented by
UNC INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
GOOSE CREEK STATE PARK
A TIME FOR SCIENCE NATURE AND SCIENCE LEARNING CENTER
Funded by
THE EDDIE AND JO ALLISON SMITH FAMILY FOUNDATION
Do You Live In A Watershed?
We All Live in a Watershed
A watershed is all the land that
drains to a common point
How to ID your stream
 Google maps (terrain and earth view)
 Google Earth
 Topographic maps (store.usgs.gov)
 Aerial photographs (any of the above or GIS office)
Falkland Elementary
School, Greenville.
Images from
store.usgs.gov, 2013,
1985, 1954.
Goose Creek 2013 and
below is goose creek 1954
topographic map.
Your 5 x 5 Meter Plot
The Water Cycle
How surfaces change
Transpiration, Evaporation, Runoff and Infiltration
The River Foodweb
Sources of Dissolved Organic Matter
• atmospheric deposition
• Trees
• Plants
• organic soil
• roots and fungi
• aquatic sediments
• aquatic organisms
Leaf Leachate (tea)
Maple
Poplar
Oak
What is the bacteria doing?
Bacteria send enzymes to break apart DOM
Bacteria eat polysaccharides
polysaccharides
DOM
The Microbial Loop
Exploring Ecosystems
 Biomes are ecological zones primarily defined by the
dominant vegetation that occur in particular temperature and
rainfall (climate) conditions around the world.
 An ecoregion is a region that contains similar soils and
landforms where similar types of ecosystems can be found.
The boundaries of ecoregions approximate the original extent
of natural communities prior to major land use
change. Ecoregions are generally smaller, more defined units
than biomes.
 An ecosystem is the interaction between a community of
living (biotic) things and the nonliving (abiotic) environment.
Biomes and Ecoregions
Ecosystems we’ve explored
Forest Ecosystems
Wetland Ecosystems
Freshwater Aquatic