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Water and Environmental Issues Vocabulary Chart
1. Capillary Action- The rising of a fluid into a small vertical space due to adhesion between the liquid and the sides
of the container and to cohesive forces within the liquid.
2. Adhesion- The molecular interactions that arise between two different substances.
3. Cohesion-The attractive forces in a substance.
4. Surface Tension-The energy required to break through the surface of a liquid.
5. Effluent- Water waste from factories.
6. Acid rain- Any precipitation with a pH of less than 5.0 that forms when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides combine
with moisture in the atmosphere to produce sulfuric acid and nitric acid.
7. Point Source Pollutants- Contaminates that are discharged or emitted from an identifiable source.
8. Greenhouse Effect- The natural process in which heat is trapped near the Earth’s surface and cannot escape
back to space. The heat is trapped but greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
9. Biomonitoring- Biological approach to monitoring plants and animals in an ecosystem to observe health patterns.
10. Thermal Pollution- Excessive heating from things such as factories and power plants causing heating of
surface waters.
11. Non- Point source Pollutants- Pollutes carried far from the original, unidentifiable source.
12. Global Warming- An unnatural warming of the AVERAGE temperature on the Earth’s surface.
13. Runoff- The water that flows down slope on the Earth’s surface into a creek, river or lake.
14. Watershed- Land area drained by a stream system.
15. Biotic Factors- Living components that affect the living organisms of the freshwater community
16. Abiotic Factors- Non-living components that affect the living organisms of the freshwater community
17. Turbidity- The amount of suspended material (mud, sediment…) in water.
18. Wetland- Any land area, such as a bog or marsh, that is covered in water a large part of the year and supports
specific plant species.
19. Marsh- A wetland at the base of a river characterized by small plants and grasses.
20. Bog- A wetland characterized by several mosses and small shrubs.
21. Swamp-A wetland characterized by large wooded trees.
22. Sediment- Weathered or broken down rock (clay, silt, sand, pebbles and boulders)
23. Weathering- The process of breaking down rock into smaller particle sizes by physical or chemical means.
24. Eutrophication- A result of pollution where an algae bloom becomes too large and blocks sunlight from traveling
within the body of water causing larger species of plants and animals to die.
25. Biomagnification- Is the accumulation of a substance up the food chain by transfer of dangerous substances,
such as mercury and DDT (pesticide), in smaller organisms that are food for larger organisms in the chain. The larger
species will have more accumulation and affects due to eating many of the smaller infected species.
26. Reclamation- The process in which a mining company restores land used during mining operations to its original
form and replants vegetation.
27. Ozone depletion- A seasonal decrease of ozone in the ozone layer over the Earth’s polar regions due to
pollution.
28. pH Scale- The scale used for measuring the acidity or alkalinity (base) of a substance. The scale is numbered
1-14. A pH value of 7.0 is considered Neutral. Highly Acidic is 1.0, highly alkaline is 14.0.
29. Aquifer- Permeable underground layer through which groundwater flows relatively easily.
30. Permeability- Ability of a material to let water pass through, is high in material with large, well-connected pores
and low in materials with few or small pores.
31. Bioremediation- The use of organisms to clean up toxic waste.
32. Deforestation- Removal of trees from a forested area without adequate replanting, often using clear-cutting,
which can result in loss of topsoil and water pollution.
33. Density-dependent factor- Environmental factors, such as, predators, disease and lack of food, that
increasingly affect a population as the population size increases.
34. Density-independent factor- Environmental factor that does not depend on population size, such as, storms,
floods, fires and pollution.
35. Hydrogen bond – Forms when the positive end of one water molecule is attracted to the negative end of another
water molecule.
36. Photochemical smog- A type of air pollution, a yellow-brown haze formed mainly from automobile exhaust in
the presence of sunlight.
37. Porosity- Percentage of open spaces between sediment in a material.
38. Renewable resource- A natural resource, such as fresh air and most groundwater, that can be replaced by
nature in a short period of time.
39. Nonrenewable resource- A resource that exists in the Earth’s crust in a fixed amount and can be replaced only
by geologic, physical or chemical processes that take hundreds of millions of years.
40. Trophic level – The position an organism occupies in a food chain.