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Aquatic: growing or living in water.
Biodiversity: The variability among living organisms from all sources, including land based and aquatic ecosystems, and the ecosystems of which they are part. These include diversity within species, between species, and of ecosystems. Diversity is the key to ensuring the continuance of life on Earth. It is also a fundamental requirement for adaptation and survival and continued evolution of species.
Carrying capacity: The population that an area will support without undergoing environmental deterioration.
Deforestation: The process of clearing of forests. Since trees root systems are essential for keeping top soil in place, deforestation can bring about soil erosion. In addition, loss of trees is said to contribute to global warming because trees reduce greenhouse gases and provide shade.
Ecology: the study of all the relationships in an environment.
Ecosystem: A community of plants and animals existing in an environment that supplies them with water, air, and other elements they need for life.
Ecosystem integrity: The extent to which the interrelationships among and within ecosystems remain intact so that the number and variety of living organisms can be maintained.
Environment: The complex set of physical, geographic, biological, social, cultural and political conditions that surround an individual or organism and that ultimately determines its form and nature of its survival.
Epiphytes: a plant that gets its moisture and nutrients from the air and rain and grows usually on another plant.
Estuary: A partially enclosed body of water formed where freshwater from rivers and streams flows into the ocean, mixing with the salty sea water. Estuaries and the lands surrounding them are places of transition from land to sea, and from freshwater to saltwater. Such areas include bays, mouths of rivers, salt marshes, and lagoons. These brackish water ecosystems shelter and feed marine life, birds, and wildlife.
Filling: The process of depositing dirt and mud in marshy areas(wetlands) or in the water to create more land. Filling disturbs natural ecological cycles.
Freshwater wetland: a wetland that contains fresh water and is located inland.
Gradient: The slope or steepness of the stream.
Groundwater: The supply of freshwater under the earth’s surface in an aquifer or soil.
Habitat: The specific environment in which an organism lives and on which it depends for food and shelter, the natural home for animals and plants.
Headwaters: Small creeks at the uppermost end of a stream system, o.en found in the mountains, that contribute to larger creeks and rivers.
Hydric: requiring an abundance of moisture.
Industrial waste: Material—for example, chemicals or even very hot water—left over from a manufacturing process. It can be harmful sometimes and may pollute the water and the environment if not treated and/or disposed of properly.
Mangrove: tropical tree that grows along flooded coastal banks.
Marsh: a wetland usually characterized by grasses and similar plants.
Natural resource accounting: The process of adjusting national accounts such as GNP to reflect the environmental costs of economic production. Although methods are still being developed, natural resource accounting strives to determine the costs of depleting natural resources and damaging the environment.
Natural resources: Materials that occur in nature and are essential or useful to humans, such as water, air, land, forests, fish and wildlife, topsoil, and minerals.
Nonpoint Source Pollution: "Diffuse" pollution, generated from large areas with no particular point of pollutant origin, but rather from many individual places. Urban and agricultural areas generate nonpoint source pollutants.
Nutrient: Any substance, such as fertilizer, phosphorous, and nitrogen compounds, which enhances the growth of plants and animals.
Point Source Pollution: A discharge of water pollution to a stream or other body of water via an identifiable pipe, vent, or culvert.
Pool: An area of relatively deep, slow water in a stream that offers shelter to fish.
Renewable: Able to be replaced or replenished, either by the earth’s natural processes or by human action. Air, water, and forests are often considered to be example of renewable resources. However, due to local geographic conditions and costs involved, strong arguments can be made that water may not be a completely renewable resource in some parts of the world, especially in developing countries or in areas with limited groundwater supplies. Minerals and fossil fuels are examples of non-renewable resources.
Reservoir: a place for storing a fluid.
Riprap: A sustaining wall built of rocks.
Riparian Area: An area, adjacent to and along a watercourse, o.en vegetated and constituting a buffer zone between the nearby lands and the watercourse.
Run: A stretch of fast, smooth current, deeper than a riffle.
Runoff: The portion of rainfall, melted snow, or irrigation water that flows across the ground surface and eventually is returned to streams. Runoff can pick up pollutants from the air or the land and carry them to streams, lakes, and oceans.
Salmonid: Fish that are members of the family Salmonidae (includes salmon, trout, char, and whitefish).
Saltwater wetland: a wetland that contains salt water and is located along the coast.
Sediment: Fine soil or mineral particles that se.le to the bottom of the water or are suspended in it.
Silting: The process whereby waterways become choked by mud and soil that has washed off the land through erosion.
Stormwater Runoff: Water that washes off the land after a rainstorm. In developed watersheds it flows off roofs and pavements into storm drains that may feed directly into the stream; often carries concentrated pollutants.
Substrate: The material that makes up the bottom layer of a stream, such as gravel, sand, or bedrock.
Stream Corridor: The lower and upper banks of a perennial or intermi.ent stream.
Stream Mouth: The place where a stream empties into a lake, an ocean, or another stream.
Suspended Sediments: Fine material or soil particles that remain suspended by the current until deposited in areas of weaker current. They create turbidity and, when deposited, can smother fish eggs or alevins. Can be measured in a laboratory as total suspended solids (TSS).
Swamp: a wetland often partially covered by water and characterized by trees.
Topography: The configuration of a surface area including its relief, or relative elevations, and the position of its natural and man-made features.
USGS: United States Geological Survey.
Wastewater: Water that has been used and is no longer clean.
Wastewater treatment: The process of removing pollutants from water that has been used. There are different stages of treatment. Primary sewage treatment involves screening the water to remove the largest solids from wastewater and then letting the water sit in settling tanks so that the smaller solids and particles sink to the bottom. Secondary treatment involves another stage in which microbes added to the wastewater to eat the biological pollutants, or the wastewater is put through another filter. Then the treated water is disinfected and released back into nature. The more steps included in the treatment, the more expensive the process.
Waterfowl: a bird that swims or wades in the water.
Wetlands: Lands where saturation with water is the dominant factor determining the nature of soil development. Wetlands also can be identified by unique plants that have adapted to oxygen-deficient (anaerobic) soils. Wetlands influence stream flows and water quality.
Wildlife: animals and birds that live in the wild.
Zoning: To designate, by ordinance, areas of land reserved and regulated for specific uses, such as residential, industrial, or open space. |
