which may have been storing water for many years. Ground-waters Ground waters by their very nature are often very difficult to access to take a sample. As a consequence the majority of ground-water data comes from samples taken from springs, wells, water supply bore-holes and in natural caves. In recent decades as the need to understand ground water dynamics has increased, an increasing number or monitoring bore-holes have been drilled into aquifers. Lakes Lakes and ponds can be very large and support a complex eco-system in which environmental parameters vary widely in all three physical dimensions and with time. Large lakes in the temperate zone often stratify in the warmer months into a warmer upper layers rich in oxygen and a colder lower layer with low oxygen levels. In the autumn, falling temperatures and occasional high winds result in the mixing of the two layers into a more homogeneous whole. When stratification occurs it not only affects oxygen levels but also many related parameters such as iron, phosphate and manganese which are all changed in their chemical form by change in the redox potential of the environment. Lakes also receive waters, often from many different sources with varying qualities. Solids from stream inputs will typically settle near the mouth of the stream and depending on a variety of factors the incoming water may float over the surface of the lake, sink beneath the surface or rapidly mix with the lake water. All of these phenomena can skew the results of any environmental monitoring unless the process are well understood. Mixing zones Where two rivers meet at a confluence there exists a mixing zone. A mixing zone may be very large and extend for many miles as in the case of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers in the United States and the River Clwyd and River Elwy in North Wales. In a mixing zone water chemistry may be very variable and can be difficult to predict. The chemical interactions are not just simple mixing but may be complicated by biological processes from submerged macrophytes and by water joining the channel from the hyporheic zone or from springs draining an aquifer. Geological inputs The geology that underlies a river or lake has a major impact on its chemistry. A river flowing across very ancient precambrian schists is likely to have dissolved very little from the rocks and maybe similar to de-ionised water