Monitoring Creek Health

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	Creating Coastal Stewardship through Science Vocabulary Acid capable of reacting with and dissolving certain metals to form salts; having a sour taste; a substance capable of giving up a proton Adaptation adjustment or change in an organism to become suitable to a new situation Alevin the yolk-sac stage of salmonids Alkaline having a pH greater than seven Anadromous describes fishes that begin life in fresh water, then go to the ocean to live, and finally return to fresh water to spawn (derived from Greek = "running upward") Anoxic absence of oxygen Base ability to react with acids to form salts; having a bitter taste; a slippery solution; capable of providing electrons Benthic bottom dwelling organisms found on stones, in mud, or vegetation Carnivore flesh eating mammals Class taxonomic category of plants and animals ranking above an order and below a phylum Consumer organism that eats other mammals Creek ecology relationship between organisms depending on or living around a creek Dissolved oxygen gaseous oxygen that is dissolved in water Ecosystem a community of interrelated life forms and non-living physical parts Erosion the wearing away of land by wind or water Estuary the mouth of a river where fresh and salt water mix Family taxonomic category below an order, above a genus (Kingdom/ Phylum/ Class/ Order/ Family/ Genus/ Species) Food chain an arrangement of the organisms of an ecological community according to the order of predation in which each member uses the next lower member as a food source Food web the totality of interacting food chains in an ecological community where food energy passes among organisms as each consumes and is preyed on by others Fry a young, immature salmon or steelhead that has not smolted yet Genus taxonomic category ranking below a family and above a species Habitat the native environment of a plant or animal. The kind of place that is natural for the life and growth of a plant or animal Herbivore feeding on plants, plant-eating Kingdom broadest, most inclusive taxonomic category of organisms having certain basic characteristics (There are five kingdoms: Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Monera, Protista) Migrate to physically move from one region to another depending on seasons; salmon hatch in fresh water, migrate to sea, and spawners migrate back again to fresh water Omnivore eating both animal and plant substances Oncorhynchus the genus name for the Pacific salmon (derived from Greek Oncho = hook, rhynchus = beak or snout) Order taxonomic category of plants and animals ranking above the family and below the class Parr a young salmon during the first one to two years of its life when it lives in fresh water Parr Marks dark round, or oval markings on the bodies of salmonid fry pH a measure of the "potential of hydrogen" of a solution based on a scale of 1 - 14 where pH 1 is the most acidic, pH 7 is neutral and pH 14 the most basic Phylum taxonomic category of plants and animals ranking above the class and below the kingdom Producers organism that contains chlorophyll to make food by photosynthesis Redd a nest that a female salmon or steelhead digs with her tail in the gravel, and a place where her eggs are deposited Resource manager person who controls or directs research, monitoring, or actions toward natural or cultural resources Riparian a zone that links terrestrial and aquatic systems Salmonid of or belonging to the family Salmonidae, which includes salmon, trout, and whitefish Scavenger an animal that feeds on dead animal's flesh or other decaying organic matter Smolt a young salmonid adapting to life in the ocean environment Spawn to produce young or eggs, especially in large numbers Species taxonomic category ranking below a genus, consisting of organisms capable of interbreeding Stewardship choices and actions to protect our environment Terrestrial living or growing on land, not aquatic Tributary a smaller stream or river that flows into another larger stream or river Watershed the land that serves as a drainage for specific streams or rivers
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Creating Coastal Stewardship through Science