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## Section 3

Section three consists of vocabulary terms that should be used and
learned when implementing the projects in sections one and two.

**GLASSARY Related Terms**

**Accuracy** -- a measure of how close repeated trials are to the
desired target.

**Acid rain** -- rain with a pH of less than 5.6; results from
atmospheric moisture mixing with sulfur and nitrogen oxides emitted from
burning fossil fuels; causes damage to buildings, car finishes, crops,
forests, and aquatic life.

**Acidity** -- a measure of the number of free hydrogen ions (H+) in a
solution that can chemically react with other substances.

**Algae** -- simple plants which do not grow true roots, stems, or
leaves and which live mainly in water, providing a base for the food
chain.

**Algal bloom** -- a heavy growth of algae in and on a body of water as
a result of high nitrate and phosphate concentrations from farm
fertilizers and detergents.

**Alkalinity** -- a measure of the negative ions that are available to
react and neutralize free hydrogen ions. Some of most common of these
include hydroxide (OH), sulfate (SO4), phosphate (PO4), bicarbonate
(HCO3) and carbonate (CO3)

**Ambient** -- pertaining to the current environmental condition.

**Assemblage** -- the set of related organisms that represent a portion
of a biological community (e.g., benthic macroinvertebrates).

**Benthic** -- pertaining to the bottom (bed) of a water body.

Best Management Practices (BMPs) - an engineered structure or management
activity, or combination of these that eliminates or reduces an adverse
environmental effect of pollutants.

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# **Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)** -- The amount of oxygen consumed by microorganisms as they decompose organic materials in water. 

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# **Biological criteria** -- numerical values or narrative descriptions that depict the biological integrity of aquatic communities in that state. ***May be listed in state water quality standards***

**Channel** - the section of the stream that contains the main flow.

**Channelization** - the straightening of a stream; this is often a
result of human activity.

**Chemical constituents** - chemical components that are part of a
whole.

**Clear cutting** -- felling and removing all trees in a forest area.

**Cobble stone** -- 2-10 inch size stones among which aquatic insects
are commonly found.

**Combined sewer overflow (CSO)** - sewer systems in which sanitary
waste and

storm water are combined in heavy rains; this is especially common in
older cities. The discharge from CSOs is typically untreated.

**Community** - the whole of the plant and animal population inhabiting
a given area.

**Culvert** -- a man-made closed passageway (such as a pipe) under
roadways and

embankments, which drains surface water and diverts natural flow.

**Designated uses** -- state-established desirable uses that waters
should support, such as fishing, swimming, and aquatic life. Listed in
state water quality standards.

**Dissolved oxygen (DO)** -- oxygen dissolved in water and available for
living organisms to use for respiration.

**Distilled water** -- water that has had most of its impurities
removed.

**Dredge** -- to remove sediments from the streambed to deepen or widen
the channel.

**Effluent** -- an out-flowing branch of a main stream or lake; waste
material (i.e. liquid industrial refuse, sewage) discharged into the
environment.

**Ecoregion** -- geographic areas that are distinguished from others by
ecological characteristics such as climate, soils, geology, and
vegetation.

**Embeddedness** -- the degree to which rocks in the streambed are
surrounded by sediment.

**Emergent plants** -- plants rooted underwater, but with their tops
extending above the water.

**Erosion** -- the wearing away of land by wind or water.

**Eutrophication** -- the natural and artificial addition of nutrients
to a waterbody, which may lead to depleted oxygen concentrations.
Eutrophication is a natural process that is frequently accelerated and
intensified by human activities.

**Floating plants** -- plants that grow free-floating, rather than being
attached to the stream bed.

**Flocculent (floc)** -- a mass of particles that form into a clump as a
result of a chemical reaction.

**Gabion**: a mesh "cage" containing earth or rocks placed into a stream
to support the banks or slow the current.

**Glide/run** -- section of a stream with a relatively high velocity and
with little or no turbulence on the surface of the water.

**Fish kill** -- the sudden death of fish due to the introduction of
pollutants or the reduction of dissolved oxygen concentration in a water
body.

**Floodplain** -- a low area of land surrounding streams or rivers which
holds the overflow of water during a flood.

**Flow** -- the direction of movement of a stream or river.

**Groundwater** -- a supply of fresh water under the earth\'s surface,
which forms a natural reservoir.

**Headwaters** -- the origins of a stream.

**Hypoxia** -- depletion of dissolved oxygen in an aquatic system.

**Impairment** -- degradation.

Impoundment -- a body of water contained by a barrier, such as a dam.

**Landuses** -- activities that take place on the land, such as
construction, farming, or tree clearing.

**Leaching** -- the process in which material in the soil (such as
nutrients, pesticides, and chemicals) are washed into lower layers of
soil or are dissolved and carried away by water.

**Macroinvertebrates** -- organisms that lack a backbone and can be seen
with the naked eye.

**Nonpoint source pollution** -- pollution that cannot be traced to a
specific point, but rather from many individual places (e.g., urban and
agricultural runoff).

**NPDES** -- National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, a national
program in which pollution dischargers such as factories and sewage
treatment plants are given permits to discharge. These permits contain
limits on the pollutants they are allowed to discharge.

**Nutrients** -- substances which enhance the growth of plants and
animals, such asphosphorous and nitrogen compounds.

**Orthophosphate** -- inorganic phosphorus dissolved in water.

**Outfall** - the pipe through which industrial facilities and
wastewater treatment plants discharge their effluent (wastewater) into a
water body.

**Permeable** -- porous; having openings through which liquid or gaseous
substances can penetrate.

**Pesticide** -- a chemical that kills insects and rodents. Pesticides
can poison aquatic life when they reach surface waters through runoff.

**pH** -- a numerical measure of the hydrogen ion concentration used to
indicate the alkalinity or acidity of a substance. Measured on a scale
of 1.0 (acidic) to 14.0 (basic); 7.0 is neutral.

**Phosphorus** -- a nutrient that is essential for plants and animals.

**Photosynthesis** -- the chemical reaction in plants that utilizes
light energy from the sun to convert water and carbon dioxide into
simple sugars. This reaction is facilitated by chlorophyll.

**Point source pollution** -- a type of pollution that can be tracked
down to a specific source such as a factory discharge pipe.

**Pollutant** -- something that makes land, water or air dirty and
unhealthful.

**Pool** -- deeper portion of a stream where water flows more slowly
than in neighboring, shallower portions.

**Precision** -- a measure of how close repeated trials are to each
other.

**Protocol** -- defined procedure.

**Reagent** -- a substance or chemical used to indicate the presence of
a chemical or to induce a reaction to determine the chemical
characteristics of a solution.

**Riffle** -- a shallow area of a stream or river with a fast-moving
current bubbling over rocks.

**Riparian** -- of or pertaining to the banks of a body of water.

**Riparian zone** -- the vegetated area on each bank of a body of water.

**Riprap** -- rocks used on an embankment to protect against bank
erosion.

**Runoff** -- water, including rain and melted snow, which is not
absorbed into the ground but instead flows across the land and
eventually runs into streams and rivers. Runoff can pick up pollutants
from the air and land, carrying them into the stream.

**Saturated** -- inundated; filled to the point of capacity or beyond.

**Sediment** -- soil, sand, and materials washed from land into
waterways. Other pollutants may attach to sediment and be carried into
stream.

**Sedimentation** -- when soil particles (sediment) settle to the bottom
of a waterway.

**Septic tank** -- a domestic wastewater treatment system into which
wastes are piped directly from the home; bacteria decompose the organic
waste, sludge settles to the bottom of the tank, and the treated
effluent flows out into the ground through drainage pipes.

**Sheen** -- the glimmering effect that oil has on water as light is
reflected more sharply off the surface.

**Silviculture** -- forestry and the commercial farming of trees.

**Slumping** -- sections of soil on a streambank that have come loose
and slipped into the stream.

**Stagnation** -- when there is little water movement and pollutants are
trapped in the same area for a long period of time.

**Submergent plants** -- plants that live and grow fully submerged under
the water.

**Substrate** -- refers to a surface. This includes the material
comprising the streambed or the surfaces to which plants or animals may
attach or upon which they live.

**Surface water** -- precipitation which does not soak into the ground
or return to the atmosphere by evaporation or transpiration, and which
is stored in streams, lakes, wetlands, and reservoirs.

**Taxon (plural taxa)** -- a level of classification within a scientific
system that categorizes living organisms based on their physical
characteristics.

**Taxonomic key** -- a quick reference guide used to identify organisms.
They are available in varying degrees of complexity and detail.

**Tolerance** -- the ability to withstand a particular condition, e.g.,
pollution-tolerant indicates the ability to live in polluted waters.

**Toxic substances** -- poisonous matter (either man-made or natural)
which causes sickness, disease and/or death to plants or animals.

**Tributaries** -- a body of water that drains into another, typically
larger, body of water.

**Turbidity** -- murkiness or cloudiness of water, indicating the
presence of some suspended sediments, dissolved solids, natural or
man-made chemicals, algae, etc.

**Undercutting** -- a type of erosion, which occurs when fine soil is
swept away by the action of the stream, especially around curves. The
result is an unstable overhanging bank.

**Water cycle** -- the cycle of the earth\'s water supply from the
atmosphere to the earth and back which includes precipitation,
transpiration, evaporation, runoff, infiltration, and storage in water
bodies and groundwater.

**Water quality criteria** -- maximum concentrations of pollutants that
are acceptable, if those waters are to meet water quality standards.
Listed in state water quality standards.

**Water quality standards** -- written goals for state waters,
established by each state and approved by EPA.

**Watershed** -- land area from which water drains to a particular water
body.

**Water table** -- the upper level of groundwater.

**Waterway** -- a natural or man-made route for water to run through
(such as a river, stream, creek, or channel)

**Wetland** -- an area of land that is regularly wet or flooded, such as
a marsh or swamp.