Glossary

(A through E)

Term	Definition
Abiotic	The non-living physical and chemical factors in the environment such as sunlight, temperature, and atmosphereic gasses.
Anadromous	Fish that spend most of their lives in the ocean, but move up rivers to spawn.
Anoxia	The absense of or insufficient levels of oxygen in a system or living being.
Anthropogenic	Man made factors affecting the ecosystem; such as carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels, and impervious surfaces such as parking lots.
Aquifers	An underground layer of permeable rock (sandstone, limestone), sediment or soil (sand, silt, clay or gravel) that yeilds water. The pore spaces in aquifers are filled with water and are interconnected.
Baseline	Data and information known about an environment at the starting point of a study.
Bathing Beach	Any natural area or tract of land which is used in connection with swimming and/or bathing in any waters of the state provided it is maintained and open to the public, either by membership, fees, or free.
Benthic	The lowest level of a body of water such as a lake or estuary, including the sediment surface and sub-surface layers.
Biotic	Naturally occurring organisms in a system including the interactions between the organisms and their envronment and community
Chloride	An ion, formed by a negatively charged chlorine element. It is a salt used during the winter to de-ice roads which enters a body of water through runoff.
Chlorophyll	A green pigment found in plants responsible for photosynthesis, allowing plants to obtain energy from sunlight.
Clean Water Act	The principal federal law (established 1977) that governs water pollution through goals of eliminating releases to water of high amounts of toxic substances, ensuring that surface waters would meet standards necessary for human sports and recreation
Climate Change	Long-term changes and abnormal variations in the expected patterns of average weather. Recent usage generally reffers to the continual increase in temperature over time.
Contact Recreation	Recreational activities invollving a significant risk of ingestion of water, including wading by children, swimming, water skiing, diving and surfing.
Demersal Fish	Fish that feed on or near the bottom of the ocean or deep lake. Demersal fish are also known as bottom feeders, groundfish or benthic fish.
Depuration	Removal of impurities from the body. Shellfish harvested in closed waters can be cleansed of potential toxins by conditioning them in a closed system and disinfecting the water through the aplication of ozone and ultraviolet light. This practice however is not approved in Rhode Island.
Diatoms	One of the most common types of phytoplankton, characterized by their unique cell wall made of silica. Diatoms are unicellular organisms with asymetrical sides that can also live in colonies.
Dinofagellates	One of the most common types of phytoplankton, characterized bythe presence of two flagella, that allow them to propell themselves through the water. Their populations are distributed depending on temperature, salinity and depth.
Discharge	Point sources such as pipes or man-made ditches that release pollutants to surface waters. Industrial, municipal, and other facilities must obtain permits if their discharge goes directly to any surface water.
Drainage Basin	An extent of land where water from rain and snowmelt drains downhill into a body of water such as wetlands, lakes, rivers and estuaries. Also referred to as watershed, or catchment area.
Ecological Functions	The relations between wildlife and habitat that influence the productivity, diversity, and sustainability of ecosystems and resources pertaining to trophic levels, physical substrates and energy flow or nutrient cycling.
Edibility	Fish and shellfish that are harvested or farmed for human consumption. In Rhode Island edibility is determined by bacteria levels in the surface water of an open shellfishing area.
Eelgrass	Also known as seagrass, is found on sandy substrates in estuariesgowing up from extensive branching roots called rhizomes. Eelgrass beds are important for sediment deposition and substrate stabilization and serve as nursery grounds for many species, providing protection to economically important fish and shellfish.
Embayment	An indenttion of a shoreline larger than a cove, but smaller than a gulf.
Enterococci	A genus of lactic acid, gram positive bacteria that live in the intestines of animals, including humans. They can be the culprit for a number of infectiosn from urinary tract infections to meningitis. Levels of Enterococcus above 7 colony-forming units per 100ml of water will close a beach.
Estuary	A partially protected body of water where the rivers meet the sea. Estuarine waters are brackish, meaning they have a lower salinity than the open ocean, but higher than fresh water.
Eutrophication	Excess nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorous which increase an ecosystem's primary productivity. Further effects include a lack of oxygen and severe reductions in water quality and many organisms inhabiting that body of water.