Since ancient times, societies have succeeded or failed according to their ability to get clean water. Today's modern cities still depend on water for everything from flushing toilets to making automobiles. Your community depends on water, too. Making the best use of water is critical to our survival.
Did you know that every living thing¿plants as well as animals¿is made up mainly of water? Your body is about 75 percent water. All life forms (even humans) need clean water to keep them healthy.
Pollution can make water unfit for people to drink. It also can make it harmful for plant and animals to live in it. Natural processes, however, can purify water over time.
It¿s usually difficult to see a watershed unless you¿re standing on top of a ridge or looking down from an airplane. Then you can see all the hills and valleys that drain water into a stream, streams into rivers and rivers into lakes. A watershed is all the land from which water drains into a specific body of water.
You walk beside a pond. A red-winged blackbird flies overhead. A bluegill swims in the water. Humans, red-winged blackbirds and bluegill are distinct species. A species is a group of individuals sharing some common characteristics or qualities and whose offspring also share those characteristics or qualities.
What do you need to survive? You need air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat and shelter to protect you from the elements. All living things have basic survival
needs similar to yours.
An ecosystem is a complex web of relationships between living and non-living things. The biotic parts of the ecosystem are the communities of plant and animal populations, including humans. The abiotic parts include sunlight, air, water, temperatures, soil and minerals. Each part of an ecosystem is connected to and depends on all the others.
When most people think of a stream, they¿re really thinking of the stream channel. The channel is the part of the stream where water collects to flow downstream. Stream channels always run downhill. In a straight stretch of river, the main force of the current is in the middle.
Missouri has more than a quarter-million acres of public lakes and half million acres of ponds. Both lakes and ponds are bodies of standing (not flowing) water, but lakes are larger. Most lakes and ponds in Missouri are artificial.
Wetlands are places where the land and water meet. In a wetland, the soil is saturated or covered with water at least part of the year. Staying wet gives the soil unique properties. In those places, the wet land becomes a home
to a wide range of plants and animals that live in the soil and on its surface.
Now that you¿ve learned about Missouri¿s aquatic ecosystems, one of the most fun ways to use your knowledge is fishing. If you fish, you¿ve always got a reason to be outdoors.
