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Kesterson Reservoir
The Kesterson Reservoir is part of the current San Luis National Wildlife Refuge in California. Formerly a unit of the Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge, the reservoir was an important stopping point for migratory waterfowl. Kesterson once consisted of 12 evaporation ponds totaling approximately 1,280 acres, and was historically used for agricultural drainage. Kesterson gained national attention during the latter half of the 20th century due to selenium toxicity and rapid die off of migratory waterfowl, fish, insects, plants and algae. The reservoir was closed in 1986, and concentrations of selenium at the site have continued to be monitored throughout remediation efforts. Background The Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge is located approximately 18 miles west of Merced County in the San Luis National Wildlife Refuge, in the San Joaquin Valley of central California. The refuge is 26,609 acres (107.68 km2) and includes a variety of wetland and riparian habitat which support ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Merced County, California
Merced County ( ), is a county located in the northern San Joaquin Valley section of the Central Valley, in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 281,202. The county seat is Merced. The county is named after the Merced River. Merced County comprises the Merced, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Modesto-Merced, CA Combined Statistical Area. It is located north of Fresno County and Fresno, and southeast of Santa Clara County and San Jose. History The county derives its name from the Merced River, or ''El Río de Nuestra Señora de la Merced'' (River of Our Lady of Mercy), named in 1806 by an expedition headed by Gabriel Moraga, which came upon it at the end of a hot dusty ride on the El Camino Viejo across the San Joaquin Valley in Spanish colonial Las Californias Province. Between 1841 and 1844, during the period when Alta California was a territory of independent Mexico, four Mexican land grants were made in what b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Residence Time
The residence time of a fluid parcel is the total time that the parcel has spent inside a control volume (e.g.: a chemical reactor, a lake, a human body). The residence time of a set of parcels is quantified in terms of the frequency distribution of the residence time in the set, which is known as residence time distribution (RTD), or in terms of its average, known as mean residence time. Residence time plays an important role in chemistry and especially in environmental science and pharmacology. Under the name '' lead time'' or ''waiting time'' it plays a central role respectively in supply chain management and queueing theory, where the material that flows is usually discrete instead of continuous. History The concept of residence time originated in models of chemical reactors. The first such model was an ''axial dispersion model'' by Irving Langmuir in 1908. This received little attention for 45 years; other models were developed such as the plug flow reactor model and the co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoirs In California
A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, through excavation, or building any number of retaining walls or levees. In other contexts, "reservoirs" may refer to storage spaces for various fluids; they may hold liquids or gasses, including hydrocarbons. ''Tank reservoirs'' store these in ground-level, elevated, or buried tanks. Tank reservoirs for water are also called cisterns. Most underground reservoirs are used to store liquids, principally either water or petroleum. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley, and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environmental Issues In California
The environment of California describes results of human habitation of the American State of California. History of environmental action California's Mediterranean climate makes vegetation susceptible to wildfires through the dry summers. Aboriginal Californians used fire to control brush, promote growth of seed-producing plants important to subsistence, and perhaps as an aid to hunting wildlife. These periodic fires kept woodland areas relatively open until 20th century laws curtailed burning in an effort to protect structures. European crops and livestock were introduced with missions along the coast from San Diego to San Francisco Bay through the late 18th and early 19th century. The California Gold Rush caused explosive population growth making San Francisco the only 19th century city west of St. Louis, Missouri.Donley, Allan, Caro, and Patton ''Atlas of California'' (1979) pp.9-19 Water soon became the limiting factor for population growth, and early laws establ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoirs In Merced County, California
A reservoir (; from French language, French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to water storage, store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an Bay, embayment within it, through excavation, or building any number of retaining walls or levees. In other contexts, "reservoirs" may refer to storage spaces for various fluids; they may hold liquids or gasses, including hydrocarbons. ''Tank reservoirs'' store these in ground-level, elevated, or buried storage tanks, tanks. Tank reservoirs for water are also called cisterns. Most underground reservoirs are used to store liquids, principally either water or petroleum. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley, and rely on the natural ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Environmental Disasters In The United States
A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic to global in extent. It can also be subdivided according to its attributes. Examples include the marine environment, the atmospheric environment and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment. The term ''environment'' can refer to a singular global environment in relation to humanity, or a local biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency. Life-environment interaction All life that has survived must have adapted to the conditions of its environment. Temperature, light, humidity, soil nutrients, etc., all influence the species within an environment. However, life in turn modifies, in various forms, its conditions. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Selenium
Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, and also has similarities to arsenic. It seldom occurs in its elemental state or as pure ore compounds in the Earth's crust. Selenium – from Greek ( 'Moon') – was discovered in 1817 by , who noted the similarity of the new element to the previously discovered tellurium (named for the Earth). Selenium is found in metal sulfide ores, where it partially replaces the sulfur. Commercially, selenium is produced as a byproduct in the refining of these ores, most often during production. Minerals that are pure selenide or selenate compounds are known but rare. The chief commercial uses for selenium today are glassmaking and pigments. Selenium is a semiconductor and is used in photocells. Applications in electronics, once important, have been ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disasters In California
A disaster is a serious problem occurring over a short or long period of time that causes widespread human, material, economic or environmental loss which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. Disasters are routinely divided into either "Natural disaster, natural disasters" caused by Natural hazard, natural hazards or "human-instigated disasters" caused from Anthropogenic hazard, anthropogenic hazards. However, in modern times, the divide between natural, human-made and human-accelerated disasters is difficult to draw. Examples of natural hazards include avalanche, avalanches, Flood, flooding, cold wave, cold waves and heat wave, heat waves, drought, droughts, earthquake, earthquakes, Cyclone, cyclones, landslide, landslides, lightning, tsunami, tsunamis, Volcanism, volcanic activity, wildfire, wildfires, and Winter storm, winter precipitation. Examples of anthropogenic hazards include Crime, criminality, civil disorder, terr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetlands Of California
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or Body of water, water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or saltwater. The main wetland typ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Wildlife Refuges In California
National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, census-designated place * National, Nevada, ghost town * National, Utah, ghost town * National, West Virginia, unincorporated community Commerce * National (brand), a brand name of electronic goods from Panasonic * National Benzole (or simply known as National), former petrol station chain in the UK, merged with BP * National Car Rental, an American rental car company * National Energy Systems, a former name of Eco Marine Power * National Entertainment Commission, a former name of the Media Rating Council * National Motor Vehicle Company, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA 1900-1924 * National Supermarkets, a defunct American grocery store chain * National String Instrument Corporation, a guitar company formed to manufacture the first resonator g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protected Areas Of Merced County, California
Protection is any measure taken to guard a thing against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although the mechanisms for providing protection vary widely, the basic meaning of the term remains the same. This is illustrated by an explanation found in a manual on electrical wiring: Some kind of protection is a characteristic of all life, as living things have evolved at least some protective mechanisms to counter damaging environmental phenomena, such as ultraviolet light. Biological membranes such as bark on trees and skin on animals offer protection from various threats, with skin playing a key role in protecting organisms against pathogens and excessive water loss. Additional structures like scales and hair offer further protection from the elements and from predators, with some animals having features such as spines or camouflage serving ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Lakes In California
There are more than 3,000 named lakes, reservoirs, and dry lakes in the U.S. state of California. Largest lakes In terms of area covered, the largest lake in California is the Salton Sea, a lake formed in 1905 which is now saline. It occupies in the southeast corner of the state, but because it is shallow it only holds about of water. Tulare Lake in the San Joaquin Valley was larger, at approximately , until it was drained during the later years of the nineteenth century. In terms of volume, the largest lake on the list is Lake Tahoe, located on the California–Nevada border. It holds roughly of water. It is also the largest freshwater lake by area, at , and the deepest lake, with a maximum depth of . Among freshwater lakes entirely contained within the state, the largest by area is Clear Lake, which covers . Many of California's large lakes are actually reservoirs: artificial bodies of fresh water. In terms of both area and volume, the largest of these is Lake S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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