Abstract
Have you ever accidentally gotten seawater in your mouth? You probably spit it out because it tasted so bad, right? Even though it looks clear, water in rivers, bays, and oceans contains lots of other things besides H2O, including some things that are not healthy for people or animals! To determine the quality of a body of water, scientists measure the temperature and how much salt, sediment, and nutrients are present in that water. Too much or too little of these things, caused by pollution, floods, or droughts, might be bad for the health of the environment. Just like the porridge in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, water quality must be “just right” to be healthy for the living things that need it.
Highlights
Have you ever accidentally gotten seawater in your mouth? You probably spit it out because it tasted so bad, right? Even though it looks clear, water in rivers, bays, and oceans contains lots of other things besides H O, including some things that are not healthy for people or animals! To determine the quality of a body of water, scientists measure the temperature and how much salt, sediment, and nutrients are present in that water
Scientists call the health of the water water quality
How do we know if water quality is healthy or unhealthy? In the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a little girl named Goldilocks explores the house of the three bears while they are away
Summary
WATER QUALITY A measure of how suitable a body of water is for a specific use. TURBIDITY A measure of how cloudy the water is, usually caused by floating particles. The delta smelt, an endangered fish, native to the San Francisco Estuary, that is impacted by changes in water quality. Let us consider a very important fish friend, the delta smelt (Figure ). This small, transparent fish is native to California’s San Francisco Estuary (Figure ). Scientists have discovered that turbid (cloudy) water is a critical feature of its habitat [ ] This is probably because delta smelt are small, so turbid water helps them hide from big predators that want to eat them. For a predator fish like the striped bass, turbid water makes finding things to eat (like the delta smelt) more di cult. These organisms are an important part of the food web in estuaries and many other environments
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