Vocabulary

Bioaccumulation – an increase in the concentration of a chemical in the tissues of an organism over time

Biomagnification – the presence of an accumulating chemical in living tissues that increases through the food chain from a low order consumer to a higher order consumer

Dead zone – an area of low oxygen caused by excessive nutrients in a system

Effluent – water mixed with other substances that runs off the land into the waterways

Embayment – a bay or cove

Eutrophication – an increase in the concentration of available nutrients resulting in an increase in the producers (algal blooms)

Hypoxia – the absence of oxygen in living tissues

Methyl mercury – a compound of mercury that binds tightly to the proteins in fish tissue including the muscle tissue

Non-point source pollution – pollutants that enter the water from several different sources making it difficult to pinpoint one source of the pollutant

Nutrient overloading – an excess of nitrogen and phosphorus entering the waterways due to agriculture, industrial and residential runoff

Point source pollution – a single identified source of pollution

Reflectivity –the amount of energy that is reflected off a surface dependent on the temperature of the surface, the composition of the particles and the wavelength of the incident radiation

Turbidity- a cloudy appearance to water due to dissolved and/or suspended solids in the water