HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A water column is a
concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by ...
ual column of water from the surface of a sea, river or lake to the bottom sediment.Munson, B.H., Axler, R., Hagley C., Host G., Merrick G., Richards C. (2004).
Glossary
. ''Water on the Web''. University of Minnesota-Duluth. Retrieved 27 May 2014.
Descriptively, the deep sea water column is divided into five parts—'' pelagic zones'' (from Greek πέλαγος (pélagos), 'open sea')—from the surface to below the floor, as follows: '' epipelagic'', from the surface to 200 meters below the surface; '' mesopelagic'', from 200 to 1000 meters below the surface; ''
bathypelagic The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above, and the abyssopelagic below. The bathypelagi ...
'', from 1000 to 4000 meters below the surface; '' abyssopelagic'', from 4000 meters below the surface to the level sea floor; '' hadopelagic'', depressions and crevices below the level sea floor. The concept of water column is useful since many aquatic phenomena are explained by the incomplete vertical mixing of waters with discrete chemical, physical or biological characteristics. For example, when studying the metabolism of
benthic organisms Benthos (), also known as benthon, is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the bottom of a sea, river, lake, or stream, also known as the benthic zone.chemicals in the water column that is meaningful, rather than the average value of those chemicals throughout the water column. Water columns are used chiefly for environmental studies evaluating the stratification or mixing of the thermal or chemically stratified layers in a lake, stream or ocean: for example, by wind-induced currents. Some of the common parameters analyzed in the water column are pH, turbidity,
temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...
,
hydrostatic pressure Fluid statics or hydrostatics is the branch of fluid mechanics that studies the condition of the equilibrium of a floating body and submerged body " fluids at hydrostatic equilibrium and the pressure in a fluid, or exerted by a fluid, on an i ...
, salinity, total dissolved solids, various pesticides,
pathogen In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a g ...
s and a wide variety of chemicals and biota. The term ''water column'' is also commonly used in
scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...
to describe the vertical space through which divers ascend and descend.


See also

* Hydrological transport model * Pelagic zone


References


External links


Water column ecology
{{fishery science topics Environmental science Hydrology Fisheries science