Environmental Science Lesson - 11/17/08 - Wetlands, etc.
Posted: November 17, 2008
Go to http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/lsps07.sci.life.eco.wetlands/
Read the Background Essay.
1. What are wetlands?
2. Wetlands include ________________, _____________, and _________ are found inland as well as along _______________________.
3. All wetlands contain salt water…………..true…….false
4. Why can’t land plants survive in wetlands?
5. Describe the three ways in which wetlands can form.
6. Why do fish and wildlife agencies make controlled floods happen?
7. Wetlands are nursing grounds for aquatic animals, such as _____________ and _______________.
8. Wetlands are winter stopovers for migratory birds, such as _____________ and _______________.
9. Wetlands _____________ the water supply for humans.
10. Wetlands slow ____________________.
11. Wetlands buffer land from ocean storm ____________.
12. Wetlands form natural ___________________ reservoirs.
13. Welands have been drained and filled with soil to support ______________________, _________________, and ______________________.
14. The straightening of rivers and streams near wetlands increases flow ___________________ (speed). This changes water ______________________ and ______________________, and it strips streamside __________________________.
15. Pollutants from industrial sources have killed vegetation and __________________________ water supplies.
16. What 3 things are people trying to re-establish in wetlands when they try to restore them?
17. What 5 things must function properly in a healthy wetland?
18. There should be ______________ in plant and animal communities and those plants and animals should be _____________ to the region.
19. What should happen to man-made structures and why?
Go to http://www.teachersdomain.org/resource/ess05.sci.ess.watcyc.katrinawet/
Read the Background Essay.
20. New Orleans sits in the middle of an ancient ________________ of the Mississippi River, which sometimes ____________________ its banks and flooded the surrounding area.
21. People built a system of _____________ to heighten the river’s banks and protect themselves from _____________________.
22. By controlling river flooding through levees, those same levees have made New Orleans and other coastal cities vulnerable to __________ flooding from tropical ____________ and ___________________.
23. In what two ways do wetlands along the Gulf coast provide the first line of defense against deadly hurricanes?
24. Unfortunately, wetlands have been deteriorating and ________________ for decades because they no longer receive the influx of _____________________ and nutrients from river flooding.
25. Due to river flood control and the opening of ________________ channels, Louisiana has lost nearly __________ square kilometers (_________ square miles) of coastal wetlands in the last 70 years. This decrease in wetlands makes it more likely that another ________________ will devastate the Gulf Coast region.
