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| Turbidity |
Stream Water Monitoring Site Measurement:
Turbidity is a measure of water clarity and how much the material suspended in the water decreases the passage of light through the water. Suspended materials include soil particles (clay, silt, and sand), algae, plankton, microbes, and other substances. These materials are typically in the size range of 0.0004 mm (clay) to 1.0 mm (sand).
Turbidity can affect the color of the water. Higher turbidity increases water temperatures because suspended particles absorb more heat. This, in turn, reduces the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) because warm water holds less DO than cold. Higher turbidity also reduces the amount of light penetrating the water, which reduces photosynthesis and the production of DO. Suspended materials can clog fish gills, reducing the resistance to decrease in fish, lowering growth rates, and affecting egg and larval development. As particles settle, they can blanket the stream bottom, especially in slower waters, and smother fish eggs and benthic macroinvertebrates.
Sources of Turbidity:
- Soil erosion
- Waste discharge
- Urban runoff
- Eroding stream banks
- Large numbers of bottom feeders (such as carp), which stir up bottom sediments
- Excessive algal growth (e.g. phytoplankton)
Why Measure for Turbidity:
Turbidity can be useful as an indicator of the effects of runoff from construction, agricultural practices, logging activity, discharges, and other sources. Turbidity often increases sharply during rainfall, especially in developed watersheds, which typically have relatively high proportions of impervious surfaces. The flow of storm water runoff from impervious surfaces rapidly increases stream velocity, which increases the erosion rates of stream banks and channels. Turbidity can also rise sharply during dry weather if earth-disturbing activities are occurring in or near a creek without erosion control practices in place. Regular monitoring of turbidity can help detect trends that night indicate increasing erosion in developing watersheds. However, turbidity is closely related to stream flow and velocity and should be correlated with these factors. Comparisons of the change in turbidity over time, therefore, should be made at the same point at the same flow.
Turbidity is not a measurement of the amount of suspended solids present or the rate of sedimentation of a stream since it measures only the amount of light that is scattered by suspended particles. Measurement of Total Suspended Solids (TSS) is a more direct measure of the amount of material suspended and dissolved in water.
How Turbidity is Measured:
A turbidity meter consists of a light source that illuminates a water sample and a photoelectric cell that measures the intensity of light scattered at a 90 degree angle by the particles in the sample. It measures turbidity units (NTU). Meters can measure turbidity over a wide range from 0 to 1000 NTUs. A clear mountain stream might have a turbidity of around 1 NTU, whereas a large river like the Mississippi might have a dry-weather turbidity of around 10 NTUs. These values can jump into hundred of NTUs during runoff events. |
| Two-dimensional manifold |
A planar graph and its associated two dimensional objects. Each chain bounds two and only two, not necessarily distinct, GT-polygons. The GT-polygons are mutually exclusive and completely exhaust the surface.
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| Type |
In the definition of the elements in the metadata standard, a compound element has the type "compound" to provide a unique way to identify compound elements. For a data element, the type identifies the kind of value that can be assigned to the data element. The choices are "integer" for integer numbers, "real" for real numbers, "text" for ASCII characters, "date" for day of the year, and "time" for time of the day.
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| UCD |
University of California Davis |
| Universe polygon |
Defines the part of the universe that is outside the perimeter of the area covered by other GT-polygons ("covered area") and completes the two-dimensional manifold. This polygon completes the adjacency relationships of the perimeter links. One or more inner rings and no outer ring represent the boundary of the universe polygon. Attribution of the universe polygon may not exist, or may be substantially different from the attribution of the covered area.
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