Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
A simple pond food chain runs from algae to zooplankton, then to small fish and larger predators. A second route begins with aquatic plants or attached algae, passes through insects and snails and reaches fish, frogs or birds. Real ponds contain both routes plus many cross-connections, so ecologists describe a food web rather than one…
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Lake turnover is the seasonal mixing of surface water with deeper water after temperature-driven density differences weaken. Many temperate lakes mix in spring and fall, distributing heat, oxygen and dissolved substances through much of the water column. Wind supplies the physical energy, while changes in water density make full-depth circulation possible. The familiar twice-yearly pattern…
Lake Okeechobee is exceptionally broad and shallow. Its average depth is about 9 feet, while published maximum-depth estimates are generally below about 20 feet and depend on lake stage. The most useful bathymetric products map the elevation of the lakebed rather than promising one permanent water depth. The U.S. Geological Survey mapped the lake with…
Dissolved oxygen, often shortened to DO, is molecular oxygen gas mixed into water and available for aquatic organisms to breathe. It enters from the atmosphere and from photosynthesis, then is consumed by respiration, decomposition and chemical reactions. Temperature strongly affects the amount present. Depth and time of day create additional variation. The oxygen atom bound…
