How are lakes classified?
How are lakes classified? Lakes are often classified by their trophic status, which is the state of nutrient enrichment of the lake. Eutrophic lakes are characterized as being nutrient rich, oligotrophic lakes are nutrient poor, and mesotrophic lakes are in between.
What are the 4 zones of a lake?
So, the four zones of a lake are: the nearshore or littoral zone, open water or limnetic zone, deep water or profundal zone, the benthic zone or lake floor. The different conditions, such as the amount of light, food, and oxygen in each of the lake zones, affect what kind of organisms live there.
What determines how a lake is named?
Most lakes are named after a feature. A sandy lake is often named Sandy Lake. A lake with a lot of fish is often named Fish Lake. A lot of lakes are repeats; there are 20 Mud Lakes in Minnesota.
What are the three classifications of lakes?
Lakes are divided into three trophic categories: oligotrophic, mesotrophic and eutrophic. The prototypic oligotrophic lake is a large deep lake with crystal clear waters and a rocky or sandy shoreline.
How do you classify a lake?
Based upon their thermal stratification, lakes are classified as either holomictic, with a uniform temperature and density from top to bottom at a given time of year, or meromictic, with layers of water of different temperature and density that do not intermix.
What are the basic characteristics of a lake?
lake, Relatively large body of slow-moving or standing water that occupies an inland basin. Lakes are most abundant in high northern latitudes and in mountain regions, particularly those that were covered by glaciers in recent geologic times.
Do all lakes lead to the ocean?
Exorheic, or open lakes drain into a river, or other body of water that ultimately drains into the ocean. Endorheic basins fall into the category of endorheic or closed lakes, wherein waters do not drain into the ocean, but are reduced by evaporation, and/or drain into the ground.