Study Guide for Midterm #2.
This exam will test your knowledge of climate, surface hydrology (including drainage
basins), plant and animal life in Virginia. There will be a place name section (10 %) and
a few short essay-type questions (70 %). You should be able to delineate watersheds,
diagram Bay habitats, and interpret climographs (20%).
Readings: "The Nature of Virginia," "Some curious
analogies."
Assignment: Climate and English Misconceptions
See also lecture notes on climate, hydrology, and biogeography
I. Mapping.
You should be able to accurately position on an outline map of Virginia:
- Climate: Areas of climatic extremes: areas with the shortest and longest growing
seasons, the wettest and, driest regions of the state.
- Hydrology
The major streams: Potomac, Shenandoah, Rappahannock, York, Pamunkey, Mattaponi, James,
Appomattox, Roanoke, Blackwater, Nottoway, Meherrin, New, Holston, Clinch and Powell. [You
need to be accurate to the extent where streams are used to form county borders they
should be drawn on those borders; and if there are other features of physiography by which
you can orient the river I will check to see if you used them. (For example, the two forks
of the Shenandoah River flow on either side of Massanutten Mountain, a feature whose
location you should already know. The Shenandoah in its entirety lies west of the Blue
Ridge Mountains.)]
- Other hydrologic features:
- Eastern continental divide
- Chesapeake Bay drainage basin
- Tennessee-New River divide
- Mountain Lake
- Lake Drummond
- Vegetation
- The four subdivisions of the Temperate Broadleaf Deciduous Forest in Virginia
- Shale barrens (general distribution pattern)
- High elevation spruce and fir forests
II. Essay-type questions:
A. Climate
- You should be able to name and describe Virginia's overall climate type.
- What are the major controls of temperature patterns in the state? Where is the effect of
each (latitude, elevation, continentality vs. maritime influence) most noticeable?
- What is the Bermuda High? How does it affect Virginia's climate?
- How and why is Virginia's climate different from England's? from Mediterranean regions'?
- From what directions does Virginia receive moist air? Why? How do these air flows
compare in terms of the total amounts of precipitation occurring in Virginia and in terms
of frequency of precipitation events?
- What causes regional variations in total amounts of precipitation within the state? What
is orographic precipitation? What is a rainshadow? How is each distributed in Virginia? Be
able to produce a simple precipitation map.
- What do each of the two graphs (line and bar) that comprise a climograph represent? Be
able to predict how climographs from different parts of Virginia would compare to each
other.
B. Hydrology:
- You should be able to explain why Virginia has so few natural lakes and describe
the presumed origin of the two lakes that do occur here.
- You should be able to define, describe, and delineate a watershed
(=drainage basin). This means also knowing what a divide is and in particular what the
eastern continental divide represents.
- You should be able to locate and describe water quality problems in
Virginia associated with
- Acid mine drainage
- Mercury contamination
- Toxic chemicals pollution (e.g., kepone)
- You should be able to discuss the origin of Chesapeake Bay and the physical
characteristics that made it a rich fishery for oysters and blue crab and the like. Be
able to tell why these characterisitcs alos make the Bay vulnerable to pollution.
- You should be able to describe the three main habitats in the Bay and their role in
promoting environmental quality.
C. Vegetation
- Why is there a relatively high diversity of plant and animal species in Virginia? How
have location, accessibility, physiography, drainage patterns, and the deciduous nature of
the forest influenced the development of this diversity?
- Identify and describe the dominant natural vegetation associated with Virginia's humid
subtropical climate. What kinds of trees are most representative of this vegetation? Where
else in the world are similar kinds of trees found?
- Describe the Southeastern Evergreen Forest and identify its typical tree species. How
has this forest been important commercially?
- Describe and explain the occurrence of two important localized plant communities: high
elevation spruce and fir forests (mountaintop or boreal islands) and shale barrens. What
is their significance today with respect to the conservation of our natural heritage?