Natural region
A natural region is a basic geographic unit. It is a region, distinguished by its common natural features of geography and climate. From the ecological point of view, the occurring flora and fauna of the region are to be influenced by its geographical and geological factors, such as soil and water availability, in a significant manner, thus most natural regions are homogeneous ecosystems. Human impact can be an important factor in the destiny of a particular natural region; the concept "natural region" may refer to a small, well defined area, or to a large basic geographical unit, like the vast boreal forest region. The term may be used generically, like in alpine tundra, or to refer to a particular place; the term is useful where there is no corresponding or coterminous official region. The Fens of eastern England, the Thai highlands, the Pays de Bray in Normandy, are examples of this. Others might include regions with particular geological characteristics, like badlands, such as the Bardenas Reales, an upland massif of acidic rock, or The Burren, in Ireland.
Ecoregion Natural regions of Chile Natural regions of Colombia Natural regions of Germany Natural regions of Venezuela Physiographic regions of the world Natural regions of Texas Alberta's Natural Regions Natural regions in Valencia
River delta
A river delta is a landform that forms from deposition of sediment, carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, estuary, reservoir, or another river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment; the size and shape of a delta is controlled by the balance between watershed processes that supply sediment, receiving basin processes that redistribute and export that sediment. The size and location of the receiving basin plays an important role in delta evolution. River deltas are important in human civilization, as they are major agricultural production centers and population centers, they can impact drinking water supply. They are ecologically important, with different species' assemblages depending on their landscape position. River deltas form when a river carrying sediment reaches either a body of water, such as a lake, ocean, or reservoir, another river that cannot remove the sediment enough to stop delta formation, or an inland region where the water spreads out and deposits sediments.
The tidal currents cannot be too strong, as sediment would wash out into the water body faster than the river deposits it. The river must carry enough sediment to layer into deltas over time; the river's velocity decreases causing it to deposit the majority, if not all, of its load. This alluvium builds up to form the river delta; when the flow enters the standing water, it is no longer confined to its channel and expands in width. This flow expansion results in a decrease in the flow velocity, which diminishes the ability of the flow to transport sediment; as a result, sediment drops out of deposits. Over time, this single channel builds a deltaic lobe; as the deltaic lobe advances, the gradient of the river channel becomes lower because the river channel is longer but has the same change in elevation. As the slope of the river channel decreases, it becomes unstable for two reasons. First, gravity makes the water flow in the most direct course down slope. If the river breaches its natural levees, it spills out into a new course with a shorter route to the ocean, thereby obtaining a more stable steeper slope.
Second, as its slope gets lower, the amount of shear stress on the bed decreases, which results in deposition of sediment within the channel and a rise in the channel bed relative to the floodplain. This makes it easier for the river to breach its levees and cut a new channel that enters the body of standing water at a steeper slope; when the channel does this, some of its flow remains in the abandoned channel. When these channel-switching events occur, a mature delta develops a distributary network. Another way these distributary networks form is from deposition of mouth bars; when this mid-channel bar is deposited at the mouth of a river, the flow is routed around it. This results in additional deposition on the upstream end of the mouth-bar, which splits the river into two distributary channels. A good example of the result of this process is the Wax Lake Delta. In both of these cases, depositional processes force redistribution of deposition from areas of high deposition to areas of low deposition.
This results in the smoothing of the planform shape of the delta as the channels move across its surface and deposit sediment. Because the sediment is laid down in this fashion, the shape of these deltas approximates a fan; the more the flow changes course, the shape develops as closer to an ideal fan, because more rapid changes in channel position results in more uniform deposition of sediment on the delta front. The Mississippi and Ural River deltas, with their bird's-feet, are examples of rivers that do not avulse enough to form a symmetrical fan shape. Alluvial fan deltas, as seen by their name and more approximate an ideal fan shape. Most large river deltas discharge to intra-cratonic basins on the trailing edges of passive margins due to the majority of large rivers such as the Mississippi, Amazon, Ganges and Yangtze discharging along passive continental margins; this phenomenon is due to three big factors: topography, basin area, basin elevation. Topography along passive margins tend to be more gradual and widespread over a greater area enabling sediment to pile up and accumulate overtime to form large river deltas.
Topography along active margins tend to be steeper and less widespread, which results in sediments not having the ability to pile up and accumulate due to the sediment traveling into a steep subduction trench rather than a shallow continental shelf. There are many other smaller factors that could explain why the majority of river deltas form along passive margins rather than active margins. Along active margins, orogenic sequences cause tectonic activity to form over-steepened slopes, brecciated rocks, volcanic activity resulting in delta formation to exist closer to the sediment source; when sediment does not travel far from the source, sediments that build up are coarser grained and more loosely consolidated, therefore making delta formation more difficult. Tectonic activity on active margins causes the formation of river deltas to form closer to the sediment source which may affect channel avulsion, delta lobe switching, auto cyclicity. Active margin river deltas tend to be much smaller and less abundant but may transport similar amounts of sediment.
However, the sediment is never piled up in thick sequences due to the sediment traveling and depositing in de
Geology
Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, the processes by which they change over time. Geology can include the study of the solid features of any terrestrial planet or natural satellite such as Mars or the Moon. Modern geology overlaps all other earth sciences, including hydrology and the atmospheric sciences, so is treated as one major aspect of integrated earth system science and planetary science. Geology describes the structure of the Earth on and beneath its surface, the processes that have shaped that structure, it provides tools to determine the relative and absolute ages of rocks found in a given location, to describe the histories of those rocks. By combining these tools, geologists are able to chronicle the geological history of the Earth as a whole, to demonstrate the age of the Earth. Geology provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, the Earth's past climates. Geologists use a wide variety of methods to understand the Earth's structure and evolution, including field work, rock description, geophysical techniques, chemical analysis, physical experiments, numerical modelling.
In practical terms, geology is important for mineral and hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, evaluating water resources, understanding of natural hazards, the remediation of environmental problems, providing insights into past climate change. Geology is a major academic discipline, it plays an important role in geotechnical engineering; the majority of geological data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These fall into one of two categories: rock and unlithified material; the majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three major types of rock: igneous and metamorphic; the rock cycle illustrates the relationships among them. When a rock solidifies or crystallizes from melt, it is an igneous rock; this rock can be weathered and eroded redeposited and lithified into a sedimentary rock. It can be turned into a metamorphic rock by heat and pressure that change its mineral content, resulting in a characteristic fabric.
All three types may melt again, when this happens, new magma is formed, from which an igneous rock may once more solidify. To study all three types of rock, geologists evaluate the minerals; each mineral has distinct physical properties, there are many tests to determine each of them. The specimens can be tested for: Luster: Measurement of the amount of light reflected from the surface. Luster is broken into nonmetallic. Color: Minerals are grouped by their color. Diagnostic but impurities can change a mineral’s color. Streak: Performed by scratching the sample on a porcelain plate; the color of the streak can help name the mineral. Hardness: The resistance of a mineral to scratch. Breakage pattern: A mineral can either show fracture or cleavage, the former being breakage of uneven surfaces and the latter a breakage along spaced parallel planes. Specific gravity: the weight of a specific volume of a mineral. Effervescence: Involves dripping hydrochloric acid on the mineral to test for fizzing. Magnetism: Involves using a magnet to test for magnetism.
Taste: Minerals can have a distinctive taste, like halite. Smell: Minerals can have a distinctive odor. For example, sulfur smells like rotten eggs. Geologists study unlithified materials, which come from more recent deposits; these materials are superficial deposits. This study is known as Quaternary geology, after the Quaternary period of geologic history. However, unlithified material does not only include sediments. Magmas and lavas are the original unlithified source of all igneous rocks; the active flow of molten rock is studied in volcanology, igneous petrology aims to determine the history of igneous rocks from their final crystallization to their original molten source. In the 1960s, it was discovered that the Earth's lithosphere, which includes the crust and rigid uppermost portion of the upper mantle, is separated into tectonic plates that move across the plastically deforming, upper mantle, called the asthenosphere; this theory is supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading and the global distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity.
There is an intimate coupling between the movement of the plates on the surface and the convection of the mantle. Thus, oceanic plates and the adjoining mantle convection currents always move in the same direction – because the oceanic lithosphere is the rigid upper thermal boundary layer of the convecting mantle; this coupling between rigid plates moving on the surface of the Earth and the convecting mantle is called plate tectonics. The development of plate tectonics has provided a physical basis for many observations of the solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features are explained as plate boundaries. For example: Mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, are seen as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart. Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes are theorized as convergent boundaries, where one plate subducts, or moves, under another. Transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful earthquakes.
Plate tectonics has provided a mechan
Paraguay River
The Paraguay River is a major river in south-central South America, running through Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. It flows about 2,621 kilometres from its headwaters in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso to its confluence with the Paraná River north of Corrientes and Resistencia; the Paraguay's source is south of Diamantino in the Mato Grosso state of Brazil. It follows a southwesterly course, passing through the Brazilian city of Cáceres, it turns in a southward direction, flowing through the Pantanal wetlands, the city of Corumbá running close to the Brazil-Bolivia border for a short distance in the Brazilian states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. From the city of Puerto Bahia Negra, the river forms the border between Paraguay and Brazil, flowing due south before the confluence with the Apa River; the Paraguay makes a long, gentle curve to the south-southeast before resuming a more south-southwesterly course, dividing the country of Paraguay into two distinct halves: the Gran Chaco region to the west, a uninhabited semi-arid region.
As such the river is considered the key geographical feature of the country with which it shares its name. Some 400 kilometres after flowing through the middle of Paraguay, at the confluence with the Pilcomayo River and passing the Paraguayan capital city, Asunción, the river forms the border with Argentina, flowing south-southwesterly for another 275 kilometres before it reaches its end, joining with the Paraná River; the Paraguay River is the second major river of the Rio de la Plata Basin, after the Paraná River. The Paraguay's drainage basin, about 1,095,000 square kilometres, covers a vast area that includes major portions of Argentina, southern Brazil, parts of Bolivia, most of the country of Paraguay. Unlike many of the other great rivers of the Rio de la Plata Basin, the Paraguay has not been dammed for hydroelectric power generation; this makes it an important shipping and trade corridor, providing a much-needed link to the Atlantic Ocean for the otherwise landlocked nations of Paraguay and Bolivia.
It serves such important cities as Concepción in Paraguay and Formosa in Argentina. The river is a source of commerce in the form of fishing, provides irrigation for agriculture along its route; as such it provides a way of life for a number of poor fishermen who live along its banks and make the majority of their income selling fish in local markets, as well as supplying a major source of sustenance for their families. This has created issues in large cities such as Asunción, where poverty-stricken farmers from the country's interior have populated the river's banks in search of an easier lifestyle. Seasonal flooding of the river's banks sometimes forces many thousands of displaced residents to seek temporary shelter until the waters recede from their homes; the Paraguayan military has been forced to dedicate land on one of its reserves in the capital to emergency housing for these displaced citizens. The river is a tourist attraction for its beauty; the Paraguay River is the primary waterway of the 147,629-square-kilometre Pantanal wetlands of southern Brazil, northern Paraguay and parts of Bolivia.
The Pantanal is the world's largest tropical wetland and is dependent upon waters provided by the Paraguay River. Owing to its importance as a navigable waterway serving Brazil and Paraguay, the river has been the focus of commercial and industrial development. In 1997 the governments of the nations of the La Plata Basin proposed a plan under the Hidrovia Inter-Governmental Commission agency to develop the rivers into an industrial waterway system to help reduce the costs of exporting goods from the area, in particular the soybean crop that the area has embraced; the plan entailed constructing more hydroelectric dams along some of the waterways, along with a massive effort to restructure the navigable waterways—most notably the Paraguay River—through dredging of the waterway, rock removal and channel restructuring. Studies indicated that the proposed river engineering of the Paraguay would have a devastating impact on the Pantanal wetlands. An effort by the Rios Vivos coalition to educate people on the effects of the project was successful in delaying the project, the nations involved agreed to reformulate their plan.
The final plan is still uncertain, along with the effect it will have on the Pantanal and the ecology of the entire Río de la Plata basin. The controversy over whether or not the project will have a disastrous effect on the local ecology, as well as the potential economic gains, continues to this day; the Paraguay River basin includes several distinctive habitats, ranging from clear waters such as Rio da Prata near Bonito in the upper part to the sediment-rich Bermejo River in the lower part. The suspended load of the Paraguay River is about 100 milligrams per litre before the inflow of Bermejo, but rises to about 600 milligrams per litre after. Directly after the inflow of Bermejo River, the pH of the Paraguay River may reach up to 8.2. The typical pH of the Paraguay River is 6.3 -- 7.9 in the lower part. The peak of the flood season in the Paraguay River is delayed 4—6 months compared to the peak of the rainy season due to t
World Heritage Site
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area, selected by the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization as having cultural, scientific or other form of significance, is protected by international treaties. The sites are judged important to the collective interests of humanity. To be selected, a World Heritage Site must be an classified landmark, unique in some respect as a geographically and identifiable place having special cultural or physical significance, it may signify a remarkable accomplishment of humanity, serve as evidence of our intellectual history on the planet. The sites are intended for practical conservation for posterity, which otherwise would be subject to risk from human or animal trespassing, unmonitored/uncontrolled/unrestricted access, or threat from local administrative negligence. Sites are demarcated by UNESCO as protected zones; the list is maintained by the international World Heritage Program administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 "states parties" that are elected by their General Assembly.
The programme catalogues and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture and heritage of humanity. Under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund; the program began with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World's Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972. Since 193 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most recognized international agreements and the world's most popular cultural program; as of July 2018, a total of 1,092 World Heritage Sites exist across 167 countries. Italy, with 54 sites, has the most of any country, followed by China, France, Germany and Mexico. In 1954, the government of Egypt decided to build the new Aswan High Dam, whose resulting future reservoir would inundate a large stretch of the Nile valley containing cultural treasures of ancient Egypt and ancient Nubia. In 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites.
In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the member states for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia. This appeal resulted in the excavation and recording of hundreds of sites, the recovery of thousands of objects, as well as the salvage and relocation to higher ground of a number of important temples, the most famous of which are the temple complexes of Abu Simbel and Philae; the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. As tokens of its gratitude to countries which contributed to the campaign's success, Egypt donated four temples: the Temple of Dendur was moved to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Temple of Debod was moved to the Parque del Oeste in Madrid, the Temple of Taffeh was moved to the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in the Netherlands, the Temple of Ellesyia to Museo Egizio in Turin; the project cost $80 million, about $40 million of, collected from 50 countries. The project's success led to other safeguarding campaigns: saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia.
UNESCO initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a draft convention to protect the common cultural heritage of humanity. The United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation; the White House conference in 1965 called for a "World Heritage Trust" to preserve "the world's superb natural and scenic areas and historic sites for the present and the future of the entire world citizenry". The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, they were presented in 1972 to the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm. Under the World Heritage Committee, signatory countries are required to produce and submit periodic data reporting providing the World Heritage Committee with an overview of each participating nation's implementation of the World Heritage Convention and a "snapshot" of current conditions at World Heritage properties. A single text was agreed on by all parties, the "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage" was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on 16 November 1972.
The Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of May 2017, it has been ratified by 193 states parties, including 189 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See and the State of Palestine. Only four UN member states have not ratified the Convention: Liechtenstein, Nauru and Tuvalu. A country must first list its significant natural sites. A country may not nominate sites. Next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File; the Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union. These bodies make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee; the Committee meets once per year to determine whether or not to inscribe each nominated property on the World Heritage List and sometimes defers or refers the decision to request more information from the country which nominated the site. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list
Aquatic plant
Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments. They are referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes. A macrophyte is an aquatic plant that grows in or near water and is either emergent, submergent, or floating, includes helophytes. In lakes and rivers macrophytes provide cover for fish and substrate for aquatic invertebrates, produce oxygen, act as food for some fish and wildlife. Aquatic plants require special adaptations for living submerged at the water's surface; the most common adaptation is aerenchyma, but floating leaves and finely dissected leaves are common. Aquatic plants can only grow in water or in soil, permanently saturated with water, they are therefore a common component of wetlands. Fringing stands of tall vegetation by water basins and rivers may include helophytes. Examples include stands of Equisetum fluviatile, Glyceria maxima, Hippuris vulgaris, Carex, Sparganium, yellow flag and Phragmites australis; the principal factor controlling the distribution of aquatic plants is the depth and duration of flooding.
However, other factors may control their distribution and growth form, including nutrients, disturbance from waves and salinity. Aquatic vascular plants have originated on multiple occasions in different plant families. Seaweeds are not vascular plants. A few aquatic plants are able to survive in brackish and salt water; the only angiosperms capable of growing submerged in seawater are the seagrasses. Examples are found in genera such as Zostera. Although most aquatic plants can reproduce by flowering and setting seed, many have extensive asexual reproduction by means of rhizomes and fragments in general. One of the largest aquatic plants in the world is the Amazon water lily. Many small aquatic animals use plants like duckweed for a home, or for protection from predators, but areas with more vegetation are to have more predators; some other familiar examples of aquatic plants might include floating heart, water lily and water hyacinth. Based on growth form, macrophytes can be classified as: Emergent macrophytes Floating-leaved macrophytes Submerged macrophytes Free floating macrophytes An emergent plant is one which grows in water but which pierces the surface so that it is in air.
Collectively, such plants are emergent vegetation. This habit may have developed because the leaves can photosynthesize more efficiently above the shade of cloudy water and competition from submerged plants but the main aerial feature is the flower and the related reproductive process; the emergent habit permits pollination by flying insects. There are many species of emergent plants, among them, the reed, Cyperus papyrus, Typha species, flowering rush and wild rice species; these may be found growing in fens but less well owing to competition from other plants. Some species, such as purple loosestrife, may grow in water as emergent plants but they are capable of flourishing in fens or in damp ground. Floating-leaved macrophytes have root systems attached to the substrate or bottom of the body of water and with leaves that float on the water surface. Common floating leaves macrophytes are pondweeds. Submerged macrophytes grow under water with root attached to the substrate or without any root system.
Free-floating macrophytes are aquatic plants that are found suspended on water surface with their root not attached to substrate or sediment or bottom of water body. They are blown by air and provide breeding ground for mosquito. Example include Pistia spp called water lettuce, water cabbage or Nile cabbage The many possible classifications of aquatic plants are based upon morphology. One example has six groups as follows: Amphiphytes: plants that are adapted to live either submerged or on land Elodeids: stem plants that complete their entire lifecycle submerged, or with only their flowers above the waterline Isoetids: rosette plants that complete their entire lifecycle submerged Helophytes: plants rooted in the bottom, but with leaves above the waterline Nymphaeids: plants rooted in the bottom, but with leaves floating on the water surface Pleuston: vascular plants that float in the water Macrophytes perform many ecosystem functions in aquatic ecosystems and provide services to human society.
One of the important functions performed by macrophyte is uptake of dissolve nutrients from water. Macrophytes are used in constructed wetlands around the world to remove excess N and P from polluted water. Beside direct nutrient uptake, macrophytes indirectly influence nutrient cycling N cycling through influencing the denitrifying bacterial functional groups that are inhabiting on roots and shoots of macrophytes. Macrophytes promote the sedimentation of suspended solids by reducing the current velocities, impede erosion by stabilising soil surfaces. Macrophytes provide spatial heterogeneity in otherwise unstructured water column. Habitat complexity provided by macrophytes like to increase the richness of taxonomy and density of both fish and invertebrates; some aquatic plants are used by humans as a food source. Examples include wild rice, water caltrop, Chinese wa
Sedimentation
Sedimentation is the tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to the forces acting on them: these forces can be due to gravity, centrifugal acceleration, or electromagnetism. In geology, sedimentation is used as the opposite of erosion, i.e. the terminal end of sediment transport. In that sense, it includes the termination of transport by true bedload transport. Settling is the falling of suspended particles through the liquid, whereas sedimentation is the termination of the settling process. In estuarine environments, settling can be influenced by the absence of vegetation. Trees such as mangroves are crucial to the attenuation of waves or currents, promoting the settlement of suspended particles. Sedimentation may pertain to objects of various sizes, ranging from large rocks in flowing water to suspensions of dust and pollen particles to cellular suspensions to solutions of single molecules such as proteins and peptides.
Small molecules supply a sufficiently strong force to produce significant sedimentation. The term is used in geology to describe the deposition of sediment which results in the formation of sedimentary rock, but it is used in various chemical and environmental fields to describe the motion of often-smaller particles and molecules; this process is used in the biotech industry to separate cells from the culture media. In a sedimentation experiment, the applied force accelerates the particles to a terminal velocity v t e r m at which the applied force is canceled by an opposing drag force. For small enough particles, the drag force varies linearly with the terminal velocity, i.e. F d r a g = f v t e r m where f depends only on the properties of the particle and the surrounding fluid; the applied force varies linearly with some coupling constant that depends only on the properties of the particle, F a p p = q E a p p. Hence, it is possible to define a sedimentation coefficient s = d e f q / f that depends only on the properties of the particle and the surrounding fluid.
Thus, measuring s can reveal underlying properties of the particle. In many cases, the motion of the particles is blocked by a hard boundary; the concentration of particles at the boundary is opposed by the diffusion of the particles. The sedimentation of a single particle under gravity is described by the Mason–Weaver equation, which has a simple exact solution; the sedimentation coefficient s The sedimentation of a single particle under centrifugal force is described by the Lamm equation, which has an exact solution. The sedimentation coefficient s equals m b / f, where m b is the buoyant mass. However, the Lamm equation differs from the Mason–Weaver equation because the centrifugal force depends on radius from the origin of rotation, whereas in the Mason–Weaver equation gravity is constant; the Lamm equation has extra terms, since it pertains to sector-shaped cells, whereas the Mason–Weaver equation is one-dimensional. Classification of sedimentation: Type 1 sedimentation is characterized by particles that settle discretely at a constant settling velocity,or by the deposition of Iron-Rich minerals to streamlines down to the point source.
They do not flocculate or stick to other during settling. Example: sand and grit material Type 2 sedimentation is characterized by particles that flocculate during sedimentation and because of this their size is changing and therefore their settling velocity is changing. Example: alum or iron coagulation Type 3 sedimentation is known as zone sedimentation. In this process the particles are at a high concentration such that the particles tend to settle as a mass and a distinct clear zone and sludge zone are present. Zone settling occurs in lime-softening, active sludge sedimentation and sludge thickeners. In geology, sedimentation is the deposition of particles carried by a fluid flow. For suspended load, this can be expressed mathematically by the Exner equation, results in the formation of depositional landforms and the rocks that constitute sedimentary record. An undesired increased transport and sedimentation of suspended material is called siltation, it is a major source of pollution in waterways in some parts of the world.
High sedimentation rates can be a result of poor land management and a high frequency of flooding events. If not managed properly, it can be detrimental to fragile ecosystems on the receiving end, such as coral reefs. Climate change affects siltation rates. In chemistry, sedimentation has
.jpg)
