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Old Ausable Channel
The Old Ausable Channel is a self-contained waterway in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada that runs through the Pinery Provincial Park and the community of Grand Bend. It is a 14 kilometre long river channel that was isolated from the Ausable River by the digging of canals for drainage in the late nineteenth century. Part of the Pinery Provincial Park's rare oak savanna, the channel is an important part of the region's ecosystem. History The Ausable River source is a moraine near Staffa, Ontario and it empties into Lake Huron at Port Franks. Starting in the 1870s, the Canada Company engaged in large-scale drainage projects within its watershed and adjacent lakes to prepare the land for vegetable agriculture. In 1875-1876, a drainage canal called "The Cut" was dug, draining the Thedford Marsh and Lake Burwell, diverting the course of the Ausable. In 1892, a second 400 yard trench was created to outlet Parkhill Creek (a tributary of the Ausable) into Lake Huron at Grand Bend, Ont ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lambton County
Lambton County is a county in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is bordered on the north by Lake Huron, which is drained by the St. Clair River, the county's western border and part of the Canada-United States border. To the south is Lake Saint Clair and Chatham-Kent. Lambton County's northeastern border follows the Ausable River and Parkhill Creek north until it reaches Lake Huron at the beach community of Grand Bend. The county seat is in the Town of Plympton-Wyoming. The largest city in Lambton County is Sarnia, which is located at the source of the St. Clair River at Lake Huron. The two Blue Water Bridges cross the river at Sarnia, connecting it to Port Huron, Michigan. The bridges are one of the busiest border crossings between the two countries. The river is also traversed by one passenger ferry further south, and a rail tunnel, also at Sarnia, runs underneath it. The CN rail tunnel accommodates double stacked rail cars. Along with Sarnia, the population centres in Lambton Co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock become completely saturated with water is called the water table. Groundwater is recharged from the surface; it may discharge from the surface naturally at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands. Groundwater is also often withdrawn for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use by constructing and operating extraction wells. The study of the distribution and movement of groundwater is hydrogeology, also called groundwater hydrology. Typically, groundwater is thought of as water flowing through shallow aquifers, but, in the technical sense, it can also contain soil moisture, perma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Wood Pewee
The eastern wood pewee (''Contopus virens'') is a small tyrant flycatcher from North America. This bird and the western wood pewee (''C. sordidulus'') were formerly considered a single species. The two species are virtually identical in appearance, and can be distinguished most easily by their calls. Taxonomy In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the eastern wood pewee in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected in the Carolinas. He used the French name ''Le gobe-mouche cendré de la Coroline'' and the Latin ''Muscicapa Carolinensis cinerea''. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his ''Systema Naturae'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the eastern wood pewee. Linnaeus in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Pickerel
The American pickerels are two subspecies of ''Esox americanus'', a medium-sized species of North American freshwater predatory fish belonging to the pike family (genus ''Esox'' in family Esocidae of order Esociformes): * Redfin pickerel, sometimes called the brook pickerel, ''E. americanus americanus'' Gmelin, 1789; * Grass pickerel, ''E. americanus vermiculatus'' Lesueur, 1846. Lesueur originally classified the grass pickerel as ''E. vermiculatus,'' but it is now considered a subspecies of ''E. americanus.'' There is no widely accepted English common collective name for the two ''E. americanus'' subspecies; "American pickerel" is a translation of the French systematic name ''brochet d'Amérique.'' Description The two subspecies are very similar, but the grass pickerel lacks the redfin's distinctive orange to red fin coloration, as its fins having dark leading edges and amber to dusky coloration. In addition, the light areas between the dark bands are generally wider on t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Chubsucker
The lake chubsucker (''Erimyzon sucetta'') is a freshwater fish endemic to North America, found in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin, as far north as Ontario, Canada, extending south to the Gulf of Mexico. It is mainly found in lakes, ponds, and swamps, rarely in streams.Fishbase. ''Erimyzon sucetta.'' 2010. http://www.fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?id=2987 The fish is an intermediate level consumer that feeds on benthic detritus, specifically on microcrustacea and midge larvae.Snodgrass, Joel W., Charles H. Jagoe, A. Lawrence Bryan Jr., Heather A. Brant and J. Burger. 2000. Effects of trophic status and wetland morphology, hydroperiod, and water chemistry on mercury concentrations in fish. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatics 58:(7) 1419-1429. Its average length is 25.8 cm. ''E. sucetta'' reportedly scatters its eggs randomly over aquatic vegetation and submerged grass in ponds or over gravelly areas cleared by males.NatureServe Explorer. ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pugnose Shiner
The pugnose shiner (''Notropis anogenus'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Notropis''. It is in the family Cyprinidae which consists of freshwater carps and minnows. Cyprinidae is the largest fish family which consists of about 369 genera and 3,018 species. Its distribution has been decreasing due to the removal of aquatic plants in order to create swimming beaches and boating access in freshwater lakes and is now mostly found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Distribution The pugnose shiner is a non-abundant species of ''Notropis'' and within the United States, it is distributed across parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. It is native to North America and its historic range was from eastern Ontario and Western New York to North Dakota, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, ending in the St. Lawrence River drainage. The population that was once in North Dakota is now thought to be extirpated due to turbidity and uprooted vegetation within the freshwater lakes a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality. Fluids can contain suspended solid matter consisting of particles of many different sizes. While some suspended material will be large enough and heavy enough to settle rapidly to the bottom of the container if a liquid sample is left to stand (the settable solids), very small particles will settle only very slowly or not at all if the sample is regularly agitated or the particles are colloidal. These small solid particles cause the liquid to appear turbid. Turbidity (or haze) is also applied to transparent solids such as glass or plastic. In plastic production, haze is defined as the percentage of light that is deflected more than 2.5° from the incoming light direction. Causes and effects Turbidity in open water may be caused by growth of phyto ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular microalgae, such as ''Chlorella,'' ''Prototheca'' and the diatoms, to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelp, a large brown alga which may grow up to in length. Most are aquatic and autotrophic (they generate food internally) and lack many of the distinct cell and tissue types, such as stomata, xylem and phloem that are found in land plants. The largest and most complex marine algae are called seaweeds, while the most complex freshwater forms are the ''Charophyta'', a division of green algae which includes, for example, ''Spirogyra'' and stoneworts. No definition of algae is generally accepted. One definition is that algae "have chlorophyll ''a'' as their primary photosynthetic pigment and lack a sterile covering of cells around thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aquatic Plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that grows in or near water and is either emergent, submergent, or floating. In lakes and rivers macrophytes provide cover for fish, substrate for aquatic invertebrates, produce oxygen, and act as food for some fish and wildlife. Macrophytes are primary producers and are the basis of the food web for many organisms. They have a significant effect on soil chemistry and light levels as they slow down the flow of water and capture pollutants and trap sediments. Excess sediment will settle into the benthos aided by the reduction of flow rates caused by the presence of plant stems, leaves and roots. Some plants have the capability of absorbing pollutants into their tissue. Seaweeds are multicellular marine algae and, although their ecologi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Groundwater Recharge
Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process, where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. This process usually occurs in the vadose zone below plant roots and is often expressed as a flux to the water table surface. Groundwater recharge also encompasses water moving away from the water table farther into the saturated zone. Recharge occurs both naturally (through the water cycle) and through anthropogenic processes (i.e., "artificial groundwater recharge"), where rainwater and or reclaimed water is routed to the subsurface. Processes Water is recharged naturally by rain and snow melt and to a smaller extent by surface water (rivers and lakes). Recharge may be impeded somewhat by human activities including paving, development, or logging. These activities can result in loss of topsoil resulting in reduced water infiltration, enhanced surface runoff and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Culvert
A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom, the word can also be used for a longer artificially buried watercourse. Culverts are commonly used both as cross-drains to relieve drainage of ditches at the roadside, and to pass water under a road at natural drainage and stream crossings. When they are found beneath roads, they are frequently empty. A culvert may also be a bridge-like structure designed to allow vehicle or pedestrian traffic to cross over the waterway while allowing adequate passage for the water. Culverts come in many sizes and shapes including round, elliptical, flat-bottomed, open-bottomed, pear-shaped, and box-like constructions. The culvert type and shape selection is based on a number of factors including requirements for hydraulic performance, limitations on up ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority
Ausable Bayfield Conservation Authority (ABCA) is a local conservation agency named in the Ontario Conservation Authorities Act. Located in Southern Ontario, the agency focuses on the conservation of the drainage basins of the Ausable River, Bayfield River, Parkhill Creek, and Gullies (Bayfield North and South Gullies) watersheds. The headquarters is located in Exeter, Ontario Exeter is a community in the municipality of South Huron, in the southern portion of Huron County, Ontario, Canada, located approximately 40 kilometres north of London. The community proclaims itself the "Home of the White Squirrel", owing .... The ABCA manages conservation and wildlife areas that were purchased for the preservation and protection of source areas and flood plain areas. Some environmentally significant areas are not publicly accessible. Hay Swamp Management Area is administered by the agency. History The former Ausable River Conservation Authority was formed in 1946. There were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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