Science Ward Barrier Islands Glossary
Terms
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- Maritime Forest
- The forest before you get to the beach filled with trees and other wildlife
- Celsius
- The metric unit of temperature measurement.
- Environment
- All the conditions, factors, and influences, living and non-living, which surround an organism or group of organisms.
- Erosion
- To be made smaller. Strong wave action does this to the beach, taking sand from the shore.
- Percolation
- A liquid moving through a medium in the same direction as gravity.
- Nauplii
- The larval state for most crustaceans.
- Constant
- The things that are kept the same each time one of the trials in the experiment is repeated.
- Food Capturer
- An animal that actively chases its prey. An example of a food capturer is a blue fish. Another name for a food capturer is a predator.
- Saltation
- The geological process of dune building. Gentle wave action brings sand and sediment ashore causing beach accretion. Winds blowing at > 10 miles per hour will pick up fine particles of sand depositing them on the dune. This is also why dune sand is finer then beach sand.
- Barrier Island
- A long strip of land that is parallel to the mainland, offering protection from the ocean forces. It is also durable and flexible. It is the "border" between the sound and the sea. It is made bigger by the long shore current/ smaller/ changing its size.
- Control
- This is used to compare and contrast with other data. A control is a trial in an experiment to which others are compared. A negative control does not contain the factor being tested (the independent variable) and is known to give a negative result.
- Plankton
- Swept about without will, unable to move against the effects of tides and currents.
- Adhesion
- Attraction of one water molecule to a surface.
- Pore Spaces
- The spaces in between grains of things, which water runs through. Little particles have little pore spaces, and big particles have big pore spaces.
- Accretion
- An expansion made by natural growth (a beach accretes when calm waves carry sand to shore). The opposite of erosion.
- Level
- When in a lab you change the amount or concentration of the independent variable for different trials.
- Storm Surge
- The rise in sea level along the coastline caused by two things: 1) Strength of wind, 2) coastal bight-geography of coastine
- Food Capturer
- An animal that actively chases its prey. An example of a food capturer is a blue fish. Another name for a food capturer is a predator.
- dH20
- Distilled water.
- Phytoplankton
- Floating microscopic plants which are important producers in marine food webs.
- Solute
- Sea salt
- Hurricane
- An intense rotating oceanic weather system with a minimum sustained winds of 114 km/h or 75 mph.
- PPT
- Parts Per Thousand
- Intertidal Zone
- The zone of the shore line habitat between the low and high tide lines, alternately covered by water and exposed to air during the daily tidal cycle. (SCL glossary).
- Ecology
- The study of all the relationships between an organism and its enviornment.
- NOAA
- N: national O: oceanographic A: atmospheric A: administration
- saline
- an isotonic solution of sodium chloride and distilled water
- Bight
- The topography, or curviness, of a coastline. Affects local currents and wave action.
- Detritus
- Minute particles of decaying organic material.
- Turbulence
- The velocity and overall movement of water. Turbulence is what determines substrate.
- Subtidal
- Zone of the shoreline habitat below the low tide line, always covered by water.
- Dependent Variable
- The variable in an experiment that is measured; the measurement.
- Decomposer
- An organism such as a bacterium or fungus which uses tissues of dead plants and animals as an energy and nutrient source (SCL, glossary) and, in this process, breaks down organic matter into inorganic matter.
- Inlet
- The water between barrier islands, also known as the water that seperates the barrier islands from the sound.
- Independent variable
- The variable in an experiment that is changed.
- Capillarity
- Liquid moving through a medium against gravity.
- Cohesion
- Attractive forces between water (H2O) molecules.
- Adaptation
- An alteration by an organism to become better fitted to survive and multiply in its environment.
- Substrate
- The bottom of an organism's habitat.
- Habitat
- The place where a organism lives.
- Zooplankton
- Floating microscopic animals, including the larval stages of many larger animals. feed on phytoplankton and other zooplankton.
- Longshore Current
- Because waves hit the beach at an angle, a current is created that runs along the beach parallel to the shore. Sand and sediment are carried in this current, along with your beach ball and even you if you are bodysurfing! On the NC shore, the longshore current generally runs from N to S.
- Brackish
- Salt water mixed with fresh water making mildly salty water. 15-25 ppt
- adductor_muscle
- a muscle that draws a part toward the median line
- Supratidal
- zone of the shoreline habitat above the high tide line where tidal water gnerally does not reach.
- Turbidity
- The cloudiness of water.
- Consumer
- Animals which must eat plants, other animals, or eat both plants and animals to obtain nutrients and energy.
- H20
- Water
- Wetlands
- An area of land saturated with water. They provide protection against storm surges in three ways. 1. Lower Temperature of Water (no heat energy for the storm). 2. Trees provide a wind break. 3. Wetlands absorb water from the surge of water.
- Fahrenheit
- The american measure of temperature.
- Salt Marsh
- This edges the sound-side shorelines of North Carolina's barrier islands and mainland.
- Salinity
- How much salt is in water, measured by parts per thousand (PPT).
- Trial
- Repetition of a level of the independent variable in an experiment.
- Radula
- A bar of teeth that an animal uses to drill into another animal's shell. This weakens the shell so it pops open. Then the animal using the drill puts his/her stomach into the other animal's shell and eats the other animal.