Learning from ELOISE Glossary

Glossary

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Accretion	The accumulation of (beach) sediment, deposited by natural fluid flow processes.
Albedo	The albedo of an object is a number between 0 and 1 that indicates the fraction of light that is reflected by the object. The albedo of the Earth is about 0.3: the Earth and its atmosphere reflect about 30 percent of the sunlight that hit them. All other things being equal, a planet looks brighter and is colder if its albedo is higher.
Algal Bloom	The rapid excessive growth of algae, generally caused by high nutrient levels and favourable conditions. Can result in deoxygenation of the water mass when the algae die, leading to the death of aquatic flora and fauna.
Anaerobic	Refers to an environment or a condition which is free of oxygen or describes a microorganism which can grow in the absence of oxygen.
Anoxia	Absence or lack of oxygen.
Anthropogenic	Differentiates changes that people have introduced to the environment from processes which are natural.
Aquifer	A geologic formation(s) that is water bearing. A geological formation or structure that stores and/or transmits water, such as to wells and springs. Use of the term is usually restricted to those water-bearing formations capable of yielding water in sufficient quantity to constitute a usable supply for people's uses.
Autotrophy	The production of organic compounds from inorganic compounds by plants and bacteria

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Benthic	Refers to material located on the bottom of a body of water or in the bottom sediments.
Benthic macrofauna	A general term referring to benthic organisms more than 1 mm in size.
Benthos	Aquatic plants or animals that live in or on the bottom of an aquatic environment (water body) such as an estuary.
Bioaccumulation	The uptake of chemical substances from the environment or food, their concentration and retention by organisms
Bioavailability	The capacity of a chemical constituent to be taken up by living organisms either through physical contact or ingestion.
Biodiversity	The variety of all life forms - the different plants, animals and micro-organisms, the genes they contain, and the ecosystems of which they form a part.
Biogenic	Describing changes in the environment resulting from the activities of living organisms.
Biogeochemical	Refers to the chemical interactions between the living (biology) and physical (geology) components of the Earth system.
Biomass	The amount and type of organic matter that is contained within a given area; the total weight of all living organisms in a biological community.
Biosphere	The portion of the earth and its atmosphere in which living organisms exist or that is capable of supporting life.
Biotope	Well-defined geographical area, characterised by specific ecological conditions (soil, climate, etc.), which physically supports the organisms that live there.
Buffering capacity	A measure of the resistance of water to withstand pH fluctuations.

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Coastal armouring	The building and maintenance of hard engineering structures and works in coastal defences.
Carbon sequestration	The long-term storage of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the carbon 'sinks' such as forests, soils and oceans. Forests absorb carbon when they break down carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.
CFCs	(Chlorofluorocarbons) Manmade chemicals containing chlorine, fluorine, and carbon. CFCs are used for industrial purposes and in the home for refrigeration, air conditioning, aerosols, foam blowing, and chemical solvents. CFCs alter the greenhouse effect by absorbing additional solar radiation. CFCs also destroy the protective ozone layer in the atmosphere that shields the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. CFCs are now banned under the Montreal protocol and subsequent agreements.
Chlorophyll	A green pigment present in green plants and cyanobacteria. Chlorophyll is essential in the transformation of light energy to chemical energy in photosynthesis.
Ciliates	A kind of protozoan that moves by means of hair-like structures (cilia) projecting from the surface of the cell.
Cinnabar	A heavy reddish mineral consisting of mercuric sulfide; the chief source of mercury.
Coastal squeeze	Refers to the forcing of intertidal habitats between the rising sea and fixed hard defences that results in their overall area being reduced.
Condensation nuclei	Small particles or aerosol upon which water vapor attaches to initiate condensation. Dust particulates, sea salt, sulfur and nitrogen oxide aerosols serve as common condensation nuclei.
Contaminants	Contaminants are substances that make another substance impure or corrupt by contact or mixture. These include toxic or hazardous substances in soil, water or air that may increase health risks and be harmful for the environment, depending on likelihood of exposure and toxicity.
Copepods	Copepods are minuscule crustaceans (related to shrimp) that are eaten by many baleen whales and many other animals. They are the biggest source of protein in the oceans and are found in all of the oceans and in many bodies of fresh water.

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Deposit-feeders	Organisms that feed on the particles of matter in the soil, usually the top sediment where it is filled with organic matter. This can happen by either ingesting the soil or by trapping the falling particles.
Denitrification	A process by which oxidized forms of nitrogen such as nitrate are reduced to form nitrites, nitrogen oxides, ammonia, or free nitrogen: commonly brought about by the action of denitrifying bacteria and usually resulting in the escape of nitrogen to the air.
Detritus	Accumulated organic debris from dead organisms, often an important source of nutrients in a food web.
Diagenetic processes	Processes involving physical and chemical changes in a sediment after deposition that convert it to a rock. The processes include compaction, squeezing out of excess water, cementation, and sometimes recrystallisation (especially in limestones). These are processes brought about by water percolating through the sediment and by the low pressures of new sediment being deposited on top.
DP-SIR	The causal framework for describing the interactions between society and the environment: Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts, Responses.

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Ecotope	The generalized spatial and temporal setting of a smaller or larger number of interrelated ecosystems found in a geographical area over a certain time span.
Elemental Mercury	Elemental mercury (Hg⁰) is a shiny, silver-white, odorless liquid that was commonly used in thermometers.
Euphotic Zone	The upper, illuminated zone of aquatic environments: it is above the compensation level and therefore the zone of effective photosynthesis. In marine environments it is much thinner than the deeper aphotic zone (below the level of effective light penetration), typically reaching 30 m in coastal waters but extending to 100-200 m in open ocean waters.
Eutrophication	The over-enrichment of a body of water with nutrients, resulting in excessive growth of organisms and depletion of oxygen concentration. While eutrophication is a natural, slow-aging process for a body of water, human activities can greatly accelerate the process.

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Feed-forward	Feed-forward is a term describing a kind of system which reacts to changes in its environment, usually to maintain some desired state of the system. Feed-forward control can respond more quickly to known kinds of disturbances, but cannot do much with novel disturbances.
Fetch	The length of unobstructed open sea surface across which the wind can generate waves. Fetch is important in determining swell and sea size.
Filter-feeders	Organisms also known as suspension-feeders that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water, typically by passing the water over a specialized structure.
Fluvial	Relating to a river or river system.

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Gelatinous	Thick and like jelly.
Generic	Applicable to an entire class or group; belonging to the same main group.
Geosphere	The soils, sediments and rock layers of the Earth’s crust, both continental and beneath the ocean floors.
Greenhouse gases	Gases e.g. methane, carbon dioxide, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) emitted from a variety of sources and processes, said to contribute to global warming and climate change. Greenhouse gases and clouds prevent some of infrared radiation in the atmosphere from escaping, trapping the heat near the Earth's surface where it warms the lower atmosphere. Alteration of this natural barrier of atmospheric gases can raise or lower the mean global temperature of the Earth.

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Halocline	The boundary between surface fresh water and underlying saltwater in a stratified coastal environment. A location where there is a marked change in salinity.
Heterotrophy	Literally, other-feeding; the condition of an organism that is not able to obtain nutrients by synthesizing non organic materials from the environment, and that therefore must consume other life forms to obtain the organic products necessary for life e.g., animals, fungi, most bacteria.
Homogeneity	The degree to which items are similar.
Humic substances	A series of relatively high-molecular-weight, yellow to black colored organic substances formed by secondary synthesis reactions in soils. The term is used in a generic sense to describe the colored material or its fractions obtained on the basis of solubility characteristics.
Hydrography	The measurement of physical characteristics of waters and marginal land. In the generalized usage, "hydrography" pertains to measurement and description of any waters.

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Intertidal	The zone between the high and low water marks.
In-Situ	Latin term for "in the original place".

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Lindane	A white crystalline powder used as an agricultural insecticide that causes adverse health effects in domestic water supplies and also is toxic to freshwater and marine aquatic life.
Littoral	The shallow, shoreward region of a body of water sometimes inhabited by aquatic plants.

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Macronutrient	An element required in proportionately larger amounts by plants and vital for healthy plant growth. Macronutrients include nitrogen (N), potassium(K), and phosphorus (P), as well as calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur (S).
Macro-tidal	Tidal range greater than 4 metres.
Managed realignment	Also referred to as ‘managed retreat’ or ‘coastal setback’, this involves deliberately breaching engineered defences to allow the coastline to recede to a new line of defence further inland.
Mesozooplankton	Planktonic animals in the size range 0.2-20 mm.
Meso-tidal	Tidal range between 2 metres and 4 metres.
Methylation	The process whereby a compound is modified chemically, often through bacterial action, by the replacement of a hydrogen atom by a methyl group.
Methylmercury	Organic mercury is mercury that has formed compounds with carbon. Methylmercury is the most common example of this form of mercury.
Microsensor studies	The use of a miniature electronic device that detects information about a specific variable such as temperature or light.
Micro-tidal	Tidal range less than 2 metres.
Mitigation	This refers to the options for reducing or removing negative environmental impacts and consists of three basic options: Remove the problem by the use of alternative sites, locations or operating conditions; reduce the problem by similar methods; or compensate for the problem by remediation, replacement or payments in cash or kind. Recommended mitigation may also include the provision of additional specific measures or inputs, which may be funded or implemented independently of the main project.
Morphometry	Quantification/measurement of structural features.

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North Atlantic
Oscillation (NAO)

The NAO is a large-scale fluctuation in atmospheric pressure between the subtropical high pressure system located near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean and the sub-polar low pressure system near Iceland and is quantified in the NAO Index. The surface pressure drives surface winds and wintertime storms from west to east across the North Atlantic affecting climate from New England to western Europe as far eastward as central Siberia and eastern Mediterranean and southward to West Africa.

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Object-orientated

Applies to a philosophy of software creation. An approach to structuring software applications.
The general notion is that an object-oriented approach to creating software starts with modeling the real-world problems trying to be solved in familiar real-world ways, and carries the analogy all the way down to structure of the program.

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Pelagic	Referring to open water marine habitats free of direct influence of the shore or ocean bottom. Pelagic organisms are generally free-swimming (nektonic) or floating (planktonic).
Planktonic	Small, usually microscopic plants (phytoplankton) and animals (zooplankton) passively floating in a body of water. They are used as food by higher aquatic life forms such as fish.
Phytobenthic communities	Microscopic plants that live in the surface layers of the seabed, particularly in shallow water and intertidal areas.
Phytoplankton	Small to microscopic aquatic organisms that are suspended in water and able to photosynthesise.
Polychaete	A marine worm with paired, flattened, bristle-tipped organs of locomotion.
Primary Producer	Organisms that occupy the first trophic level in the grazing food chain.
Primary productivity	The rate at which new plant biomass is formed by photosynthesis. Much primary productivity in marine or aquatic systems is made up of phytoplankton, which are tiny one- celled algae that float freely in the water.

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Riparian

Relating to, living in or located on the bank of a natural freshwater course such as a river, stream, pond or lake.

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Sequestration	Removal and storage, as when carbon dioxide is sequestered from the atmosphere by plants via photosynthesis.
Solar irradiance	The radiant energy (watts) from the sun received per square metre on a surface.
Sorbed	A substance taken into and retained in another substance.
Stochastic	Involving or containing a random variable or variables; involving chance or probability.
Synergistic	Describes the simultanious action of two or more substances whose combined effect is greater than the sum of each working alone.

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Tidal amplitude	The magnitude of the difference in elevation between low and high tides at a particular point in a body of water.
Transgression	The advance or spread of seas over land surfaces which cause changes in erosion and depositional patterns of marine and non-marine strata.
Troposphere	The lowest layer of the atmosphere. The troposphere has distinctive winds and cloud formations, and it has a very marked drop in temperature with altitude. It is 10 - 16 km from the surface of the Earth.
Turbidity	In water bodies, the condition of having suspended particles that reduce the ability of light to penetrate beneath the surface.

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Volatility

The property of changing readily from a solid or liquid to a vapour.

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