| Term | Definition |
|---|
| runoff | water that doesn't sink in, but instead runs across the earth's surface |
| meandering streams | streams that have channels with many curves |
| point bar | a pile of sand and gravel that is deposited on the inside of a meander |
| braided streams | streams with many bars and islands separated by river channels |
| drainage basin | a specific area of earth's surface that a stream drains water from |
| bed load | sediment that moves along the bed of the stream by rolling, bouncing, or sliding |
| suspended load | sediment that is light enough to be carried in the water but still visible |
| dissolved load | sediment that is dissolved in the water |
| stream discharge | the volume of water that moves through a stream in a given amount of time |
| floodplain | the region of land next to the stream channel that is covered by water during a flood |
| nutrients | compounds such as nitrates and phosphates that are used by plants, algae, and some plankton to help them grow |
| Eutrophication | an increase in nutrients and organisms that is a normal part of a lake's life |
| turnover | when cooler water sinks and mixes with nutrient-rich water |
| wetlands | areas of land that are covered with water during some part of the year |
| swamps | wetlands where the most common types of plans are trees and shrubs |
| marshes | wetlands that contains mostly grasses and other soft-stemmed plants like rushes and sedges |
| bogs | wetlands formed by glaciers that have only rainwater as their source of freshwater and contain plants usch as the Venus's-flytrap |
| point source pollution | pollution that enters water from a specific location |
| nonpoint source pollution | pollution comes from multiple areas such as lawns, construction sites, and farm fields |
| divide | an elevated area of land that separates drainage basins |
| delta | land formed by deposited sediment in a body of water |
| alluvial fan | land formed by deposited sediment on a flat area of land |
| lake | body of relatively still, or standing, water |
| reservoir | lake containing water that is used for human consumption |
| stream | a body of water in a channel that flows downhill because of gravity |
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