Acid rain: Precipitation that has a low pH. Acid rain is created
when atmospheric water combines with sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions.
These emissions are by-products of the combustion of fossil fuels. Acid rain
can harm plant and animal life and alter soil conditions.
Acidity: A pH less than 7.
Adaptation: The modification, over time, of the structure,
function, or behavior of an organism, which enables it to be better suited to
its environment.
Algae: Group of primitive, non-flowering plants that include
certain seaweeds and microscopic phytoplankton.
Alkalinity: A pH greater than 7.
Aquatic: Living in water.
Atmosphere: The layer of air surrounding the earth.
Autotrophs/Primary Producers: Greek: auto = self + troph =
feeder. Organisms that make their own organic compounds using an environmental
energy source (e.g. sunlight) along with carbon dioxide as their carbon source.
Benthic: Cccurring or living at the bottom of a body of water.
Bioaccumulation: The buildup of certain chemicals within tissues
and organs of the body.
Biodiversity: Variety in the living things in a particular
area.
Biogeochemical Cycle: Slow movement of elements from the environment,
through food webs, then back into the environment (e.g. carbon cycle).
Biological Magnification: The process of exposing organisms
high on the food chain to potentially dangerous levels of persistent toxins.
Brackish: Classification of water that has some salt in it.
Camouflage: Coloration that helps an animal to blend in with
its background to avoid predation.
Carnivores: Latin: carnis = flesh + vovare = to devour. Animals
that eat other animals.
Community: Interrelated and interdependent group of plants
and animals in a specific habitat.
Condensation: The process by which a vapor becomes a liquid;
the opposite of evaporation.
Consumers: Heterotrophs that feed on other organisms for carbon
and energy (e.g. herbivores, carnivores, and parasites).
Decomposer: Organisms, such as fungi and bacteria that obtain
carbon and energy from remains, products, or wastes of organisms. Collectively,
decomposers help cycle nutrients to producers in ecosystems.
Detritivores: Heterotrophs that ingest decomposed or partly
decomposed plant and animal matter (detritus).
Dissolved oxygen: Oxygen released into the water by photosynthesis
and by air-water interactions; it is essential for respiration of aquatic animals.
Dorsal: Refers to the back or upper surface of an animal.
Ecosystem: An array of organisms and their physical environment,
interacting by a one-way flow of energy and a cycling of materials.
Effluent: Waste material, such as water from sewage treatment
or manufacturing plants, discharged into the environment.
Entomology: The study of insects, arachnids, and other arthropods.
Environment: All the biotic and abiotic factors that affect
an individual organism at any one point in its life cycle.
Erosion: Removal of soil or land surface by the action of water,
wind, or ice.
Estuary: A semi-enclosed body of water where salt water and
fresh water mix.
Eutrophication: Over-enrichment of a body of water as a result
of excessive nutrient loading, often resulting in depletion of dissolved oxygen.
Evaporation: The conversion of a liquid into a vapor, usually
through the application of heat energy; the opposite of condensation.
Fertilizer: Any substance, either natural or manufactured,
used to aid plant growth by addition of nitrates and other compounds that "feed"
the plant.
Food chain: The straight-line sequence in which energy (food)
is transferred from one organism to another.
Food web: Complex interaction of food chains in a biological
community.
Habitats: Place where an organism or species normally lives.
Heterotrophs: Greek: hetero = other + troph = feeder. Organisms
unable to make their own organic compounds; feed on autotrophs, other heterotrophs,
and organic wastes.
Indicator species: An organism, who?s health or population
numbers, are a gauge of pollution within an environment.
Insectivore: Insect-eating animals.
Intertidal zone: The area between high and low tide.
Larvae: An early developmental stage of an animal, especially
insects.
Macroinvertebrate: Invertebrate animals (animals without backbones)
large enough to be observed without the aid of a microscope or other magnification.
Marsh: Low, wet, grassland without trees periodically covered
with water.
Metabolism: All the chemical reactions by which cells acquire
and use energy that contribute to growth, survival, and reproduction.
Microorganism: Organism, usually single celled, too small to
be observed without a microscope.
Molecule: A unit of matter in which chemical bonds hold together
two or more atoms of the same or different elements.
Mollusk: Organisms (usually) with a hard outer shell and an
open circulatory system. Members include snails, clams, oysters, scallops, mussels,
and squid, among others in the phylum Molluska.
Molting: Periodic shedding of body structures that are too
small, worn out, or both. Permits certain animals to grow in size or renew some
parts (e.g. exoskeletons, shells, hairs, feathers, and horns).
Municipal waste: Sewage and other waste products originating
from urban areas, that are not industrial in origin.
Niche: All of the activities and relationships in which individuals
of a species engage in to survive.
Nitrogen: An inorganic nutrient essential for plant growth
and reproduction; excess can cause eutrophication; problems are usually associated
with agricultural runoff and sewage.
Non-point source pollution: Pollutants entering waterways from
a general area, such as runoff from farmland or suburban communities.
Non-renewable resource: Coal, natural gas and oil, and fossil
fuels; they are considered a finite resource because of the millions of years
they take to form.
Nutrients: Chemicals necessary for organisms to live.
Nymph: An early developmental stage of an animal, especially
insects, where the animal in the immature stage is shaped like the adult.
Omnivores: Latin: omnis = all + vovare = to devour. Animals
that eat both plants and animals?they feed on more that one trophic level.
Organism: Any living being; plants and animals.
Pesticide: Chemical used to remove insects and other pests
from plants to prevent damage to the plant.
pH: Measure of the concentration of free hydrogen ions (H+)
in a solution. A pH value greater than 7 is alkaline (e.g. baking soda in water),
a pH less than 7 is acidic (e.g. lemon juice), and a ph of 7 is neutral (e.g.
pure water).
Phosphorous: An inorganic nutrient essential for plant growth
and reproduction; problems are usually associated with farmland runoff, sewage
and detergents.
Photosynthesis: The process by which green plants (those with
chlorophyll) use light, carbon dioxide and water, to produce basic food substances
and oxygen.
Phytoplankton: A community of aquatic photosynthetic species
(mainly microscopic) that drift or swim weakly through water. As producers,
they are the start of nearly all food webs in aquatic habitats.
Plankton: A community of aquatic (mainly microscopic) organisms
that drift or swim weakly through water.
Point-source pollution: Pollution from a definable source.
Pollution: An alteration in the character or quality of the
environment, or any of its components, that renders it less suited for certain
uses; the alteration of the physical, chemical, or biological properties of
water by the introduction of any substance that renders the water harmful to
use.
Population: All individuals of the same species occupying a
given area.
Precipitation: Water droplets or ice particles condensed from
atmospheric water vapor and sufficiently heavy to fall to the earth?s surface,
such as rain or snow.
Predator: An animal that feeds on other animals.
Primary consumer: Animals that eat herbivores and decomposers.
Producers: An organism that nourishes itself using sources
of energy from its environment, e.g. plants.
Pupae: Insects in the "resting" stage of metamorphosis.
Renewable resource: A resource derived from an endless or cyclical
source, such as sun, wind, water or biomass.
Runoff: Water that flows across surfaces rather than soaking
in; eventually enters a water body; may pick up and carry a variety of pollutants.
Salinity: The amount of salt present in water, normally measured
in parts per thousand.
Scavenger: An animal that feeds on dead or decomposing plant
and animal matter.
Secchi disk: A black and white, circular, weighted disk used
to measure turbidity.
Secondary consumer: Animals that eat primary consumers and
herbivores.
Sediment: Fragmented organic or inorganic material derived
from the weathering of soil and rock materials; removed by erosion and transported
by water, wind, ice, and gravity.
Sessile: Describes an organism that is sedentary and permanently
attached, e.g. adult oysters and barnacles.
Species: One kind of organism. Of sexually reproducing organisms,
one or more natural populations in which individuals are interbreeding and are
reproductively isolated from other such groups.
Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV): Rooted vegetation that
grows beneath the water surface.
Tarsi: Small appendages on insects? or arachnids? legs, often
used for grasping.
Tides: Periodic movement (raising and lowering) of a body of
water by the gravitational attraction of the moon and sun with the rotation
of the earth.
Toxin: Any chemical, physical, or biological agent that causes
disease or some change in the normal structure and function of an organism.
Tributaries: Streams and rivers that supply a larger body of
water.\Trophic Level: An organism?s functional role in a hierarchy of feeding
relationships.
Turbidity: The cloudy or muddy appearance of a naturally clear
liquid caused by the suspension of matter.
Urban: Land that is developed into cities and towns.
Water cycle: The paths water takes through its various states?vapor,
liquid, and solid?as it moves throughout Earth?s systems (oceans, atmosphere,
ground water, streams, etc.). Also known as the hydrologic cycle.
Watershed: The land area from which surface runoff drains into
a stream channel, lake, reservoir, or other body of water; also called a drainage
basin.
Zooplankton: Free-floating animals at the water surface, ranging
in size from microscopic krill to jellyfish.
