OVERVIEW OF SCIENCE

TWO TYPES OF EXPERIMENTS: both "experimental"

Direct Manipulation Indirect Manipulation
(Observational)

Which type of experiment is more realistic? Which type is it easier to control other variables? Which type is it easier to determine cause and affect?

Why does science work?

i.e. If we can’t have 100% confidence in any scientific study, why should we have confidence in the overall scientific process?

Ecological systems large and complex, REAL DATA FRUSTRATING

Bottom line for limnology: don't accept or reject data as absolute, but instead, as you write up each lab, make an argument based on available data and observation to build confidence in your hypotheses. Most likely you will have to use several independent sources of data to construct a convincing argument.

What is limnology?

Aquatic ecology , freshwater oceanography, study of inland waters….

The history of limnology dominated by European and Northern U.S.A.

F.A. Forel - Lake Geneva

Louis Agassiz - fish ecology in Lake Superior

http://www.sacklunch.net/biography/A/LouisAgassiz.html

Stephen Forbes "The Lake as a Microcosm" - A lake as "a little world within itself"

Wisconsin (Juday and Birge) and Michagan (Welch) schools

G. E. Hutchinson "A Treatise on Limnology"

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Science/SWCS/PEOPLE/hutchins.html

Some professional societies:

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography
North American Lake Management Society
Georgia Lakes Society

Why study aquatic systems?

Water in the biosphere - 71% of earth's surface

Oceans 97.6%
Polar ice 2.1%
Groundwater 0.3%
FW lakes 0.009%
Rivers 0.00009%

Primary productivity and species diversity are largely influenced by water.

Human society is dependent on clean water.

"[O]f the 31% of global runoff that is spatially and temporally accessible to society, more than half is withdrawn (35%) or maintained for instream uses."
(http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1042/9_50/65576221/p1/article.jhtml?term=)

What is non-consumptive vs. consumptive use?

If use is non-consumptive, does that necessarily mean that water returned to a stream can be used again?

Aquatic system types:

Some terminology:

drainage basin/watershed (e.g. Georgia)

primary vs secondary productivity (based on trophic level)

eutrophic vs oligotrophic

benthic (periphyton and macrophytes, infaunal, epifaunal, meiofaunal, and epiphytic animals (aufwuchs)), planktonic (zoo- and phyto-), nektonic, vs neustonic

lotic vs lentic

Lakes

What are some uses of lakes, what are the impacts of those uses, and what should one measure to assess these impacts?

How are lakes formed?
(read pages 458-463 in your limnology text)

Natural Lakes versus Artificial Reservoirs
How might RESERVOIRS and LAKES differ based on:

Drainage basin area to lake surface area

Flushing rate

Water level

Water release depth

Sedimentation, turbidity

Shorline to lake surface area