A water column is a conceptual column of water from surface to bottom sediments. 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. Some of the common parameters analyzed in the water column are: pH, turbidity, temperature, salinity, total dissolved solids, various pesticides, pathogens and a wide variety of chemicals and biota.
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.
Hydrostatic pressure can be analyzed by the height of a water column, which effectively yields the pressure at a given depth of the column.
The term "water column" is also commonly used in scuba diving to describe the area in which divers ascend and descend.
Read more about Water Column: See Also
Famous quotes containing the words water and/or column:
“of you i
sing: land of Abraham Lincoln and Lydia E. Pinkham,
land above all of Just Add Hot Water And Serve—
from every B. V. D.
let freedom ring”
—E.E. (Edward Estlin)
“I got it: Man Without Head Kills Rich Jeweler. What an eight- column spread that’d be on the front page. Why that’s the greatest story since Lindbergh flew to Paris. Oh boy, if only it was true.”
—P. J. Wolfson, John L. Balderston (1899–1954)