Water quality and pollution
Practice Flashcards
Flip to reveal answersDefine water quality.
Track your progress — Sign up free to save your progress and get smart review reminders based on spaced repetition.
All 12 Flashcards — Water quality and pollution
Sign up free to track progress and get spaced-repetition review schedules.
Question
Define water quality.
Answer
How clean and usable fresh water is — its levels of **nutrients, oxygen, sediment, salts and chemicals**.
Question
Define eutrophication.
Answer
Enrichment of water with **nutrients (nitrate, phosphate)**, causing algal blooms and oxygen loss.
Question
What is an algal bloom?
Answer
A rapid surface growth of algae that **blocks light** and later **uses up oxygen** as it decays.
Question
What is a dead zone?
Answer
Water so low in oxygen (**hypoxic**) that fish and other animals cannot survive.
Question
Define salinisation.
Answer
A **build-up of salts** in soil and water, often from over-irrigation in dry areas.
Question
Point vs diffuse source?
Answer
**Point source** = one identifiable outlet (a pipe); **diffuse (non-point)** = spread across an area (run-off from fields).
Question
Trace the eutrophication chain.
Answer
Nutrients to **algal bloom** to algae decay to bacteria use the **oxygen** to **dead zone** to fish die.
Question
One human cause of eutrophication?
Answer
Fertiliser run-off (also sewage, detergents, industrial discharge) adding nutrients to the water.
Question
One physical cause of eutrophication?
Answer
Shallow, warm, slow-moving or enclosed water that concentrates nutrients and speeds algal growth.
Question
How does irrigation cause salinisation?
Answer
It raises the water table; as that water evaporates it leaves **salt concentrated at the surface**, poisoning crops.
Question
Two ways agriculture pressures wetlands?
Answer
Fertiliser run-off causing eutrophication, and **draining/abstraction** altering the water flow.
Question
What does a top [10] Examine answer need?
Answer
Two+ developed effects/stakeholders, an example, a weighing of relative severity, and a clear judgement.
Read the notes
Full study notes for Water quality and pollution
Topic 7.3 hub
Water scarcity and water quality
More from Topic 7.3
All flashcards in this topic
Geography exam skills
Paper structures & tips
Track your progress with spaced repetition
Sign up free — Aimnova tells you exactly which cards to review and when, so you remember everything before your IB exam.
Start Free