Water Quality Vocab Flashcards
(28 cards)
An underground layer of water bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well
Aquifer
Process of attachment of a substance to the surface if another substance
Adhesion
The biological sequestering (holding) of a substance at a higher concentration than that at which it occurs in the surrounding environment or medium
Bioaccumulation (bio magnification)
The action or property of molecules sticking together
Cohesion
A measure of a materials ability to conduct an electric current
Conductivity
The widening channel of a river where it nears the sea, with a mixing of fresh water and salt (tidal) water
Estuary
A syndrome of ecosystem responses to human activities that fertilize water bodies with nitrogen and phosphorus, often leading to changes in animal and plant populations and degradation of water and habitat quality
Eutrophication
An area of land adjacent to a stream or river that stretched from the banks if it’s channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge
Floodplain
A well stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a hydraulically pressurized liquid with the intent of extracting fossil fuels
Fracking
Water that occurs below the ground and is brought to the land surface by wells or springs
Ground water
Individual metals and metal compounds that negatively affect people’s health
Heavy metals
An organism that serves as a measure of the environmental conditions that exist in a given locale (present when environment is unpolluted)
Indicator species
An area of irregular limestone in which erosion has produced fissures, sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns
Karst
A solution resulting from leaching, as of soluble constituents from soil, landfill etc. by downward percolating ground water
Leachate
The process by which nitrogen is converted between its various chemical forms
Nitrogen cycle
When rainfall or snowmelt runs over land or through the ground, picks up pollutants, and deposits them into rivers, lakes, wetlands and coastal waters or introduces them into groundwater.
Non point source pollution
A collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean
Pacific garbage patch
The slow movement of water through the pores in soil or permeable rock
Percolation
Any single identifiable source of pollution from which pollutants are discharged, such as pipe, ditch, ship or factory smokestack
Point source pollution
Ecosystems located along the banks of rivers, streams, creeks or any other water networks. Narrow strips of land that like the borders of a water source
Riparian zone
The movement of water and any containments across the soil surface. It occurs when irrigation, rain or snow melt adds water to a surface faster than it can enter the soil
Runoff
The tendency for particles in suspension to settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained
Sedimentation
Rain water that collects in streams, rivers, lakes
Surface water
Any water that has been adversely affected in quality by any human impact or influence on the water
Waste water
