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Preferred term

water column

Is replaced by

chlorophyll a

Definition

A water column is a conceptual column of water from surface to bottom sediments.[1] This concept is used chiefly for environmental studies evaluating the stratification or mixing (e.g., by wind-induced currents) of the thermal or chemically stratified layers in a lake, stream or ocean. The concept of water column is quite important, since many aquatic phenomena are explained by the incomplete vertical mixing of chemical, physical or biological parameters. For example, when studying the metabolism of benthic organisms, it is the specific bottom layer concentration of available chemicals in the water column that is meaningful, rather than the average value of those chemicals throughout the water column.

Broader concept

deprecated concept

Note

[controlled by ] Alessandro Oggioni 23.05.2013" , "[source of definition ] wikipedia

Scope note

US LTER controlled vocabulary

Creator

herbert.schentz@umweltbundesamt.at

URI

http://vocabs.lter-europe.net/EnvThes/USLterCV_620

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Created 3/31/16, last modified 3/21/22

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