stream vocab
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26 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 riparian | of or relating to or located on the banks of a river or stream |
| biotic | living |
| abiotic | nonliving, physical features of the environment, including air, water, sunlight, soil, temperature, and climate |
| topography | the surface features of a place or region: includes hills, valleys, streams, lakes. |
| watershed | the land area that supplies water to a river system |
| depositional area | The part of the stream bank where rocks and gravel are deposited. (often shallow or flat) |
| erosional area | The part of the stream bank where the velocity of the water erodes the bank away. (often a steep drop off - tree roots sometimes exposed) |
| confluence | a place where 2 similarly sized streams merge or flow together |
| headwaters | the place where a river begins |
| mouth | the point where a stream flows into a larger body of water |
| riffle | small rapid area - stretch of shallow, rapid, or choppy water |
| macroinvertebrate | Aquatic organisms (big enough to see and without a vertebrae) who often act as indicator species. |
| dissolved oxygen | oxygen that has been dissolved into a liquid such as water. |
| algal bloom | The rapid growth of a population of algae |
| decomposition | decaying caused by bacteria (this process uses oxygen) |
| river system | a river and its tributaries |
| wetland | a habitat that has water at least some of the time and that supports plants adapted to water-saturated soil (marsh, swamp, bog) |
| tributary | a stream or river that flows into a larger river |
| phosphate | Is a chemical needed for plant and animal growth - often found in fertilizer or detergents |
| nitrate | a chemical used for growth by plants and algae - found in fertilizer |
| turbidity | the measurement of water cloudiness; it may be affected by such things as sediment and algae concentrations |
| flood plain | flat land near the edges of rivers formed by dirt deposited by floods |
| lentic | a slow-moving body of water where the water seems to stand still; lakes, ponds, and wetlands |
| lotic | freshwater ecosystems with relatively fast-moving water |
| littoral | close to the edge of the stream or pond |
| benthic | The bottom surfaces of aquatic environments |
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