Water Quality Vocabulary
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Created by:
nickstines on January 4, 2012
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Description:
Flashcards on water quality information
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39 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Aquaculture | rearing aquatic animals or cultivating aquatic plants for food |
| Algae | primitive chlorophyll-containing mainly aquatic eukaryotic organisms lacking true stems and roots and leaves |
| Algal Bloom | an immediate increase in the amount of algae and other producers that results from a large input of a limiting nutrient |
| Bio-indicator | organisms or components of organisms that are used to assess the health of a water system |
| Chemical indicator | A substance (as a dye) used to show visually usually by its capacity for color change, the condition of a solution with respect to the presence of free acid or alkali or some other substance. |
| Clumping agent | Chemical added to water during the treatment process, which causes pollutions to stick together and sink to the bottom. |
| Concentration | the strength of a solution |
| Conservation | the preservation and careful management of the environment and of natural resources |
| Contaminates | Any foreign components in a substance such as water |
| Desalination | the removal of salt (especially from sea water) |
| Dissolved Oxygen | oxygen dissolved in water, dissolved oxygen is important for fish and other aquatic animals |
| Drought | a temporary shortage of rainfall |
| EPA | an independent federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment |
| Fertilizers | chemicals that provide nutrients to help crops grow better |
| Indicator | a device for showing the operating condition of some system |
| Industrial discharge | Waste products from an industry entering a water system or the air. |
| Irrigation | a way of supplying water to an area of land |
| Macro-invertebrates | A biotic index uses the presence of specific ________ to determine whether or not a stream is healthy. |
| Nitrates | Special compounds containing nitrogen and oxygen |
| Nonpoint-source pollution | pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a single, specific site |
| Non-renewable resource | a resource that cannot be reused or replaced easily (ex. gems, iron, copper, fossil fuels) |
| Nutrient influx | Nutrients flowing into an area. |
| Pesticide | a chemical used to kill pests (as rodents or insects) |
| pH | (chemistry) p(otential of) H(ydrogen) |
| Phosphates | mineral salts containing the element phosphorus |
| Physical indicator | Used to determine the health of a water system, temperature, dissolved oxygen , pH, turbidity. |
| Point source pollution | Pollutants discharged from a single identifiable location (e.g., pipes, ditches, channels, sewers, tunnels, containers of various types). |
| Pollutant | waste matter that contaminates the water or air or soil |
| ppm | (parts per million) The amount of acidic particals in water are measured by this. |
| Secchi disk | A white + black plate-sized disk attached to a rope, that when lowered down into the water measures turbidity. |
| Sediment | matter deposited by some natural process |
| Septic tank | large tank where solid matter or sewage is disintegrated by bacteria |
| Sewage system | facility consisting of a system of sewers for carrying off liquid and solid sewage |
| Stewardship | A philosophy that holds that humans have a unique responsibility to manage, care for, and improve nature. |
| Temperature | the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment (corresponding to its molecular activity) |
| Thermal Pollution | harm to lakes and rivers resulting from the release of excessive waste heat into them |
| Turbidity | the measurement of water cloudiness; it may be affected by such things as sediment and plankton concentrations |
| Waste water | Is water that contains waste from your home or industry that must be treated before you can drink it |
| Water quality | used to describe the health of a water system |
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