Body of water
A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water on a planet's surface. The term most refers to oceans and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more puddles. A body of water contained. Most are occurring geographical features, but some are artificial. There are types. For example, most reservoirs are created by engineering dams, but some natural lakes are used as reservoirs. Most harbors are occurring bays, but some harbors have been created through construction. Bodies of water that are navigable are known as waterways; some bodies of water collect and move water, such as rivers and streams, others hold water, such as lakes and oceans. The term body of water can refer to a reservoir of water held by a plant, technically known as a phytotelma. Bodies of water are affected by gravity, what creates the tidal effects on Earth. Note that there are some geographical features involving water that are not bodies of water, for example waterfalls and rapids.
Arm of the sea – sea arm, used to describe a sea loch. Arroyo – a dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally. See wadi. Artificial lake or artificial pond – see Reservoir. Barachois – a lagoon separated from the ocean by a sand bar. Bay – an area of water bordered by land on three sides, similar to, but smaller than a gulf. Bayou – a slow-moving stream or a marshy lake. Beck – a small stream. Bight – a large and only receding bay, or a bend in any geographical feature. Billabong – an oxbow lake in Australia. Boil – see Seep Brook – a small stream. Burn – a small stream. Canal – an artificial waterway connected to existing lakes, rivers, or oceans. Channel – the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks. See stream bed and strait. Cove – a coastal landform. Earth scientists use the term to describe a circular or round inlet with a narrow entrance, though colloquially the term is sometimes used to describe any sheltered bay.
Creek – a small stream. Creek – an inlet of the sea, narrower than a cove. Delta – the location where a river flows into an ocean, estuary, lake, or reservoir. Distributary or distributary channel – a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Drainage basin – a region of land where water from rain or snowmelt drains downhill into another body of water, such as a river, lake, or reservoir. Draw – a dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally. See wadi. Estuary – a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, with a free connection to the open sea Firth – a regional term of Scotland used to denote various coastal waters, such as large sea bays, estuaries and straits. Fjord – a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes. Glacier – a large collection of ice or a frozen river that moves down a mountain. Glacial pothole – a kettle Gulf – a part of a lake or ocean that extends so that it is surrounded by land on three sides, similar to, but larger than a bay.
Headland – an area of water bordered by land on three sides. Harbor – an artificial or occurring body of water where ships are stored or may shelter from the ocean's weather and currents. Impoundment – an artificially-created body of water, by damming a source. Used for flood control, as a drinking water supply, ornamentation, or other purpose or combination of purposes. Note that the process of creating an "impoundment" of water is itself called "impoundment." Inlet – a body of water seawater, which has characteristics of one or more of the following: bay, estuary, fjord, sea loch, or sound. Kettle – a shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters. Kill – used in areas of Dutch influence in New York, New Jersey and other areas of the former New Netherland colony of Dutch America to describe a strait, river, or arm of the sea. Lagoon – a body of comparatively shallow salt or brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a shallow or exposed sandbank, coral reef, or similar feature.
Lake – a body of water freshwater, of large size contained on a body of land. Lick — a small watercourse or an ephemeral stream Loch – a body of water such as a lake, sea inlet, fjord, estuary or bay. Mangrove swamp – Saline coastal habitat of mangrove trees and shrubs. Marsh – a wetland featuring grasses, reeds, typhas and other herbaceous plants in a context of shallow water. See Salt marsh. Mediterranean sea – a enclosed sea that has limited exchange of deep water with outer oceans and where the water circulation is dominated by salinity and temperature differences rather than winds Mere – a lake or body of water, broad in relation to its depth. Mill pond – a reservoir built to provide flowing water to a watermill Moat – a deep, broad trench, either dry or filled with water and protecting a structure, installation, or town. Ocean – a major body of salty water that, in totality, covers about 71% of the Earth's surface. Oxbow lake – a U-shaped lake formed when a wide meander from the mainstem of a riv
First Day Hikes
First Day Hikes is a program of free, guided hikes offered by the fifty state park systems of the United States each year on New Year's Day. The program began locally in Massachusetts in 1992 and went nationwide in 2012 under the aegis of the America's State Parks alliance; the hikes are intended to promote an alternate way of celebrating the new year by going outside, getting some exercise, experience local nature and history. In 2017, more than 62,000 people participated in First Day Hikes, covering over 110,000 miles on some 1,300 hikes around the nation; the number of different hikes offered within each state varies, with for example in 2018 New Jersey listing 30, Oklahoma having 19, California offering over 80 of them. Hikes vary in duration and difficulty, with many being 1–3 miles in length, easy-to-moderate in difficulty, starting between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and taking one to two hours to complete. However some are short and easy and are family-friendly for all ages, while others are strenuous with significant elevation gains.
Still others, such as at Spruce Run Recreation Area in New Jersey or at Red Rock Canyon State Park in California, are all-day affairs. Walks stop to hear the guides describe local flora, fauna, or historical sites of interest, such as at Monmouth Battlefield State Park in New Jersey. In some locations, park officials treats after the hikes; the number of participants on any given hike can range from a dozen to a hundred or more. In some cases, such as at Spring Mountain Ranch State Park in Nevada, guides may take participants into areas of a park off-limits to the general public. A few hikes feature modes other than walking, such as horseback riding, mountain biking, or all-terrain vehicles. Night hikes have been held when there is an bright moon. Cold weather is expected on January 1 across much of the nation and participants are advised to dress in layers appropriately. In cases of severe winter weather some of the hikes in a state may be cancelled. People do turn out in cold weather, with for instance over 1,000 participants across Indiana in 2018 despite an average high temperature in the state that day of 1 °F.
The tradition began on January 1, 1992, at the Blue Hills Reservation state park in Norfolk County, Massachusetts outside of Boston. It was the idea of Patrick Flynn, supervisor of Blue Hills Reservation, who had remembered a February winter hike taking place in his home state of Ohio; the New Years Day hike at Blue Hills drew 380 people that first year, has since become so popular at that site that the parking lots become full and people must stop their cars along nearby roadsides. The start of 2018 marked the 27th annual First Day Hike at Blue Hills Reservation. For his contribution, Flynn subsequently received an award from the National Association of State Park Directors. In 2008, hikes were added at other sites in Massachusetts under the sponsorship of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation; the hikes continued to grow in popularity in that state. Independently, another first day walk tradition began on January 1, 1970, in Assateague State Park on the Maryland Eastern Shore.
It was started by two women who sought to celebrate the beauty of Assateague Island and rally against plans to develop it. It subsequently became an annual tradition, with the 30th iteration taking place in 2010, became popular over time, with people driving from various other parts of the state to join in with up to 300 others; the Ilia Fehrer / Judy Johnson Memorial Beach Walk, named after the two women who started it, is now part of Maryland's roster of First Day Hikes. During 2011, Priscilla Geigis, the director of state parks in the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, suggested that other state park directors in nearby states adopt the practice; the idea spread and by January 1, 2012, state park directors across the country became involved. Thus, First Day Hikes became a nationwide event in 2012, under the America's State Parks association, with some 400 hikes being offered; the practice has continued to grow in popularity since then. In 2016, about 55,000 participants were involved in the hikes nationwide.
With that number exceeding 62,000 in 2017 with some 1,300 hikes being given. The effects of the 2017–18 North American cold wave, which gave frigid temperatures across much of the nation, resulted in numbers for 2018 decreasing to 32,000 participants across some 1,200 hikes; the America's State Parks association proclaims, "What better way to kick off the New Year than by getting a jump start burning off those extra holiday calories in the great outdoors?" Or as New Jersey's park system says about the activity, "These free First Day Hikes offer a great incentive to get outside, experience history, enjoy nature, celebrate the New Year with friends and family in one of your state parks." As one state parks official in Massachusetts itself said, "We want to launch the year saying,'Get outside!'"Some people engage in First Day Hikes to counteract the effects of New Year's Eve celebrations the night before, while others find the outdoor activity the best aspect of the whole holiday. Another parks official in Iowa said, "We started this as a health initiative, but it's just grown into a good way to spend time with the family and do something that you maybe wouldn't do on that holida
New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry
In the state of New Jersey, the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry is an administrative division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In its most visible role, the Division is directly responsible for the management and operation of New Jersey's public park system which includes 42 state parks, 11 state forests, 3 recreation areas, more than 50 historic sites and districts. However, its duties include protecting state and private lands from wildfire, managing forests, educating the public about environmental stewardship and natural resources, as well as growing trees to maintain and restore forests in rural and urban areas, to preserve the diversity of the trees within the forests; the cultural and natural heritage of New Jersey is reflected in the diversity of its public parks and historic sites. The division is the steward of the historic homes and battlefields where George Washington and the Continental Army spent half of the American Revolutionary War. 1905: Forest Park Reservation Commission founded by Governor Edward C.
Stokes. 1915: Department and Board of Conservation and Development created, Forest Park Reservation Commission and other agencies merged into it. 1923: State Park Service formed. 1945: Department and Board of Conservation and Development became Division of Forestry, Geology and Historic Sites, Department of Conservation.. The Department administered the State Museum, the abandoned Morris Canal, the Delaware and Raritan Canal. Historic Sites dropped from name in 1947, division absorbed into Division of Planning and Development, Department of Conservation and Economic Development. 1961, Name changed to the Division of Resource Development. 1961: Restored Division of Parks and Recreation in Department of Conservation and Economic Development. Bureau of Forestry managed the State forests, growing trees for reforestation projects and stationing firewardens throughout the State; the Bureau of Parks and Recreation maintained and operated the State Forests and Historic Sites. 1966: Division of Parks and Recreation was re-established in the Department of Conservation and Economic Development and authorized to develop, protect and administer all State forests, recreation areas, historic sites, natural areas.
1967: New Jersey Historic Trust established. 1967: Historic Sites Council was established within the Division of Parks and Recreation 1968: New Jersey Natural Lands Trust established. 1970: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection created by Governor Cahill 1971: The Division of Parks and Recreation joined the new Department of Environmental Protection and was designated the Division of Parks and Forestry in 1971. The State Park Service was organized in 1923 to manage three state parks, including with "four new employees in supervisory capacity and five others as helpers in subordinate positions" and between two and six additional laborers were used for special seasonal work from time to time. Today, the agency manages over 40 protected areas designated as state parks, state forests, recreation areas and historic sites. Founded in 1906 with a focus on wildland fire suppression and fire protection, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service is the largest firefighting department within the state of New Jersey in the United States with 85 full-time professional civil service positions, 2,000 trained part-time on-call wildland firefighters throughout the state.
Its mission is to protect "life and property, as well as the state's natural resources, from wildfire." The New Jersey Forest Fire Service covers a primary response area of 3.72 million acres comprising 77% of the state's land area and administered by three regional divisions. This primary response area includes the state's rural and suburban areas, as well as its public state parks and forests. In 2014, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service responded to 1,063 wildfire events that destroyed 6,692 acres; the service conducted controlled prescribed burns on 15,326 acres statewide. List of New Jersey Forest Fire Service fire towers NJDEP Division of Parks and Forestry
Fresh water
Fresh water is any occurring water except seawater and brackish water. Fresh water includes water in ice sheets, ice caps, icebergs, ponds, rivers and underground water called groundwater. Fresh water is characterized by having low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Though the term excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs. Fresh water is not the same as potable water. Much of the earth's fresh water is unsuitable for drinking without some treatment. Fresh water can become polluted by human activities or due to occurring processes, such as erosion. Water is critical to the survival of all living organisms; some organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of higher plants and most mammals need fresh water to live. Fresh water can be defined as water with less than 500 parts per million of dissolved salts. Other sources give higher upper salinity limits for e.g. 1000 ppm or 3000 ppm. Fresh water habitats are classified as either lentic systems, which are the stillwaters including ponds, lakes and mires.
There is, in addition, a zone which bridges between groundwater and lotic systems, the hyporheic zone, which underlies many larger rivers and can contain more water than is seen in the open channel. It may be in direct contact with the underlying underground water; the majority of fresh water on Earth is in ice caps. The source of all fresh water is precipitation from the atmosphere, in the form of mist and snow. Fresh water falling as mist, rain or snow contains materials dissolved from the atmosphere and material from the sea and land over which the rain bearing clouds have traveled. In industrialized areas rain is acidic because of dissolved oxides of sulfur and nitrogen formed from burning of fossil fuels in cars, factories and aircraft and from the atmospheric emissions of industry. In some cases this acid rain results in pollution of rivers. In coastal areas fresh water may contain significant concentrations of salts derived from the sea if windy conditions have lifted drops of seawater into the rain-bearing clouds.
This can give rise to elevated concentrations of sodium, chloride and sulfate as well as many other compounds in smaller concentrations. In desert areas, or areas with impoverished or dusty soils, rain-bearing winds can pick up sand and dust and this can be deposited elsewhere in precipitation and causing the freshwater flow to be measurably contaminated both by insoluble solids but by the soluble components of those soils. Significant quantities of iron may be transported in this way including the well-documented transfer of iron-rich rainfall falling in Brazil derived from sand-storms in the Sahara in north Africa. Saline water in oceans and saline groundwater make up about 97% of all the water on Earth. Only 2.5–2.75% is fresh water, including 1.75–2% frozen in glaciers and snow, 0.5–0.75% as fresh groundwater and soil moisture, less than 0.01% of it as surface water in lakes and rivers. Freshwater lakes contain about 87% of this fresh surface water, including 29% in the African Great Lakes, 22% in Lake Baikal in Russia, 21% in the North American Great Lakes, 14% in other lakes.
Swamps have most of the balance with only a small amount in rivers, most notably the Amazon River. The atmosphere contains 0.04% water. In areas with no fresh water on the ground surface, fresh water derived from precipitation may, because of its lower density, overlie saline ground water in lenses or layers. Most of the world's fresh water is frozen in ice sheets. Many areas suffer from lack of distribution such as deserts. Water is a critical issue for the survival of all living organisms; some can use salt water but many organisms including the great majority of higher plants and most mammals must have access to fresh water to live. Some terrestrial mammals desert rodents, appear to survive without drinking, but they do generate water through the metabolism of cereal seeds, they have mechanisms to conserve water to the maximum degree. Fresh water creates a hypotonic environment for aquatic organisms; this is problematic for some organisms with pervious skins or with gill membranes, whose cell membranes may burst if excess water is not excreted.
Some protists accomplish this using contractile vacuoles, while freshwater fish excrete excess water via the kidney. Although most aquatic organisms have a limited ability to regulate their osmotic balance and therefore can only live within a narrow range of salinity, diadromous fish have the ability to migrate between fresh water and saline water bodies. During these migrations they undergo changes to adapt to the surroundings of the changed salinities; the eel uses the hormone prolactin, while in salmon the hormone cortisol plays a key role during this process. Many sea birds have special glands at the base of the bill; the marine iguanas on the Galápagos Islands excrete excess salt through a nasal gland and they sneeze out a salty excretion. Freshwater molluscs include freshwater snails and freshwater bivalves. Freshwater crustaceans include crayfish. Freshwater biodiversity faces many threats; the World Wide Fund for Nature's Living Planet Index noted an 83% decline in the populations of freshwater vertebrates between 1970 and 2014.
These declines continue to outpace
Crab fisheries
Crab fisheries are fisheries which capture or farm crabs. True crabs make up 20% of all crustaceans caught and farmed worldwide, with about 1.4 million tonnes being consumed annually. The horse crab, Portunus trituberculatus accounts for one quarter of that total. Other important species include flower crabs, snow crabs, blue crabs, edible or brown crabs, Dungeness crab and mud crabs, each of which provides more than 20,000 tonnes annually; the FAO groups fishery catches using the ISSCAAP classification. ISSCAAP has a group for crabs and sea-spiders, another group for king crabs and squat lobsters. Crabs and sea-spiders are defined as including "Atlantic rock crab, black stone crab, blue crab, blue swimming crab, dana swimcrab, dungeness crab, edible crab, cazami crab, geryons nei, green crab, hair crab, harbour spidercrab, Indo-Pacific swamp crab, jonah crab, marine crabs nei, Mediterranean shore crab, Pacific rock crab, portunus swimcrabs nei, queen crab, red crab, spinous spider crab, swimcrabs nei, tanner crabs nei".
The following table summarises crab production from 2000 to 2008, both caught wild and from aquaculture, in tonnes. Crab trap List of harvested aquatic animals by weight
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It has a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit; the distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and subjective, but a hill is universally considered to be less tall and less steep than a mountain. In the United Kingdom, geographers regarded mountains as hills greater than 1,000 feet above sea level, which formed the basis of the plot of the 1995 film The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain. In contrast, hillwalkers have tended to regard mountains as peaks 2,000 feet above sea level: the Oxford English Dictionary suggests a limit of 2,000 feet and Whittow states "Some authorities regard eminences above 600 m as mountains, those below being referred to as hills." Today, a mountain is defined in the UK and Ireland as any summit at least 2,000 feet or 610 meters high, while the official UK government's definition of a mountain is a summit of 600 meters or higher.
Some definitions include a topographical prominence requirement 100 feet or 500 feet. In practice, mountains in Scotland are referred to as "hills" no matter what their height, as reflected in names such as the Cuillin Hills and the Torridon Hills. In Wales, the distinction is more a term of land use and appearance and has nothing to do with height. For a while, the U. S. defined a mountain as being more tall. Any similar landform lower; the United States Geological Survey, has concluded that these terms do not in fact have technical definitions in the U. S; the Great Soviet Encyclopedia defined "hill" as an upland with a relative height up to 200 m. A hillock is a small hill. Other words include its variant, knowe. Artificial hills may be referred to including mound and tumulus. Hills may form through geomorphic phenomena: faulting, erosion of larger landforms such as mountains, movement and deposition of sediment by glaciers The rounded peaks of hills results from the diffusive movement of soil and regolith covering the hill, a process known as downhill creep.
Various names used to describe types of hill, based on method of formation. Many such names originated in one geographical region to describe a type of hill formation peculiar to that region, though the names are adopted by geologists and used in a wider geographical context; these include: Brae -- Scottish term for a brow of a hill. Drumlin – an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Butte – an isolated hill with steep sides and a small flat top, formed by weathering. Kuppe – a rounded hill or low mountain, typical of central Europe Tor – a rock formation found on a hilltop. Puy – used in the Auvergne, France, to describe a conical volcanic hill. Pingo – a mound of earth-covered ice found in the Arctic and Antarctica. Many settlements were built on hills, either to avoid floods, or for defense, or to avoid densely forested areas. For example, Ancient Rome was built on seven hills; some settlements in the Middle East, are located on artificial hills consisting of debris that has accumulated over many generations.
Such a location is known as a "tell". In northern Europe, many ancient monuments are sited in heaps; some of these are defensive structures. In Britain, many churches at the tops of hills are thought to have been built on the sites of earlier pagan holy places; the National Cathedral in Washington, DC has followed this tradition and was built on the highest hill in that city. Hills provide a major advantage to an army, giving them an elevated firing position and forcing an opposing army to charge uphill to attack them, they may conceal forces behind them, allowing a force to lie in wait on the crest of a hill, using that crest for cover, firing on unsuspecting attackers as they broach the hilltop. As a result, conventional military strategies demand possession of high ground. Hills have been the sites of many noted battles, such as the first recorded military conflict in Scotland known as the battle of Mons Graupius. Modern conflicts include the Battle of Bunker Hill in the American War of Independence and Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill in the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the American Civil War.
The Battle of San Juan Hill in the Spanish–American War won Americans control of Santiago. The Battle of Alesia was fought from a hilltop fort. Fighting on Mamayev Kurgan during the Battle of Stalingrad and the Umurbrogol Pocket in the Battle of Peleliu were examples of bloody fighting for high ground. Another recent example is the Kargil War between Pakistan; the Great Wall of China is an example of an advantage provider. It is built on mountain tops, was meant to defend against invaders from the north, among others, Mongolians. Hillwalking is a British English term for a form of hiking; the activity is distinguished from mountaineering as it does no
Artificiality
Artificiality is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Artificiality carries with it the implication of being false, counterfeit, or deceptive; the philosopher Aristotle wrote in his Rhetoric: Naturalness is persuasive, artificiality is the contrary. It is like the difference between the quality of Theodorus' voice and the voices of all other actors: his seems to be that of the character, speaking, theirs do not. However, artificiality does not have a negative connotation, as it may reflect the ability of humans to replicate forms or functions arising in nature, as with an artificial heart or artificial intelligence. Political scientist and artificial intelligence expert Herbert A. Simon observes that "some artificial things are imitations of things in nature, the imitation may use either the same basic materials as those in the natural object or quite different materials. Simon distinguishes between the artificial and the synthetic, the former being an imitation of something found in nature, the latter being a replication of something found in nature.
Some philosophers have gone further and asserted that, in a deterministic world, "everything is natural and nothing is artificial", because everything in the world is a product of the physical laws of the world. It is possible for humans, in some instances, for computers, to distinguish natural from artificial environments; the artificial environment tends to have more physical regularity both spatially and over time, with natural environments tending to have both irregular structures and structures that change over time. However, on close observation it is possible to discern some mathematical structures and patterns in natural environments, which can be replicated to create an artificial environment with a more natural appearance. For example, by identifying and imitating natural means of pattern formation, some types of automata have been used to generate organic-looking textures for more realistic shading of 3D objects. Cultural artifact Simulation Tamagotchi Fake Man-made Synthetic
