USGS NAWQA

EPA CRITERIA

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GLOSSARY

Glossary:

Algae - Chlorophyll-bearing nonvascular, primarily aquatic species that have no true roots, stems, or leaves; most algae are microscopic, but some species can be as large as vascular plants.

Alluvium - Deposits of clay, silt, sand, gravel or other particulate rock material left by a river in a streambed, on a flood plain, delta, or at the base of a mountain.

Alluvial aquifer - A water-bearing deposit of unconsolidated material (sand and gravel) left behind by a river or other flowing water.

Ammonia - A compound of nitrogen and hydrogen (NH₃) that is a common by-product of animal waste. Ammonia readily converts to nitrate in soils and streams.

Anthropogenic - Occurring because of, or influenced by, human activity.

Aquatic guidelines - Specific levels of water quality which, if reached, may adversely affect aquatic life. These are nonenforceable guidelines issued by a governmental agency or other institution.

Aquatic-life criteria - Water-quality guidelines for protection of aquatic life. Often refers to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency water-quality criteria for protection of aquatic organisms. See also Water-quality guidelines, Water-quality criteria, and Freshwater chronic criteria.

Aquifer - A water-bearing layer of soil, sand, gravel, or rock that will yield usable quantities of water to a well.

Artificial recharge - Augmentation of natural replenishment of ground-water storage by some method of construction, spreading of water, or by pumping water directly into an aquifer.

Autotrophs - Organisms that obtain their energy from non-living sources and sunlight. This group includes all plants, including algae, and some bacteria.

Background concentration - A concentration of a substance in a particular environment that is indicative of minimal influence by human (anthropogenic) sources.

Base flow - Sustained, low flow in a stream; ground-water discharge is the source of base flow in most places.

Basic Fixed Sites - Sites on streams at which streamflow is measured and samples are collected for temperature, salinity, suspended sediment, major ions and metals, nutrients, and organic carbon to assess the broad-scale spatial and temporal character and transport of inorganic constituents of streamwater in relation to hydrologic conditions and environmental settings.

Basin - See Drainage basin.

Basin and Range physiography - A region characterized by a series of generally north-trending mountain ranges separated by alluvial valleys.

Bedload - Sediment that moves on or near the streambed and is in almost continuous contact with the bed.

Bed sediment - The material that temporarily is stationary in the bottom of a stream or other watercourse.

Benthic - Refers to plants or animals that live on the bottom of lakes, streams, or oceans.

Benthic invertebrates - Insects, mollusks, crustaceans, worms, and other organisms without a backbone that live in, on, or near the bottom of lakes, streams, or oceans.

Best management practice (BMP) - An agricultural practice that has been determined to be an effective, practical means of preventing or reducing nonpoint source pollution.

Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) - The amount of oxygen, measured in milligrams per liter, that is removed from aquatic environments by the life processes of microorganisms.

Biodegradation - Transformation of a substance into new compounds through biochemical reactions or the actions of microorganisms such as bacteria.

Biomass - The amount of living matter, in the form of organisms, present in a particular habitat, usually expressed as weight per unit area.

Biota - Living organisms.

Blue-baby syndrome - A condition that can be caused by ingestion of high amounts of nitrate resulting in the blood losing its ability to effectively carry oxygen. It is most common in young infants and certain elderly people.

Canopy angle - Generally, a measure of the openness of a stream to sunlight. Specifically, the angle formed by an imaginary line from the highest structure (for example, tree, shrub, or bluff) on one bank to eye level at midchannel to the highest structure on the other bank.

Channelization - Modification of a stream, typically by straightening the channel, to provide more uniform flow; often done for flood control or for improved agricultural drainage or irrigation.

Community - In ecology, the species that interact in a common area.

Concentration - The amount or mass of a substance present in a given volume or mass of sample. Usually expressed as microgram per liter (water sample) or micrograms per kilogram (sediment or tissue sample).

Confined aquifer (artesian aquifer) - An aquifer that is completely filled with water under pressure and that is overlain by material that restricts the movement of water.

Criterion - A standard rule or test on which a judgment or decision can be based.

Cubic foot per second (ft³/s, or cfs) - Rate of water discharge representing a volume of 1 cubic foot passing a given point during 1 second, equivalent to approximately 7.48 gallons per second or 448.8 gallons per minute or 0.02832 cubic meter per second.

Denitrification - A process by which oxidized forms of nitrogen such as nitrate (NO₃-) are reduced to form nitrites, nitrogen oxides, or free nitrogen: commonly brought about by the action of denitrifying bacteria and usually resulting in the escape of nitrogen to the air.

Detection limit - The concentration below which a particular analytical method cannot determine, with a high degree of certainty, a concentration.

Diatoms - Single-celled, colonial, or filamentous algae with siliceous cell walls constructed of two overlapping parts.

Discharge - Rate of fluid flow passing a given point at a given moment in time, expressed as volume per unit of time.

Dissolved constituent - Operationally defined as a constituent that passes through a 0.45-micrometer filter.

Dissolved solids - Amount of minerals, such as salt, that are dissolved in water; amount of dissolved solids is an indicator of salinity or hardness.

Drainage area - The drainage area of a stream at a specified location is that area, measured in a horizontal plane, which is enclosed by a drainage divide.

Drainage basin - The portion of the surface of the Earth that contributes water to a stream through overland run-off, including tributaries and impoundments.

Ecological studies - Studies of biological communities and habitat characteristics to evaluate the effects of physical and chemical characteristics of water and hydrologic conditions on aquatic biota and to determine how biological and habitat characteristics differ among environmental settings in NAWQA Study Units.

Ecoregion - An area of similar climate, landform, soil, potential natural vegetation, hydrology, or other ecologically relevant variables.

Ecosystem - The interacting populations of plants, animals, and microorganisms occupying an area, plus their physical environment.

Effluent - Outflow from a particular source, such as a stream that flows from a lake or liquid waste that flows from a factory or sewage-treatment plant.

Environmental framework - Natural and human-related features of the land and hydrologic system, such as geology, land use, and habitat, that provide a unifying framework for making comparative assessments of the factors that govern water-quality conditions within and among Study Units.

Environmental setting - Land area characterized by a unique combination of natural and human-related factors, such as row-crop cultivation or glacial-till soils.

Ephemeral stream - A stream or part of a stream that flows only in direct response to precipitation or snowmelt. Its channel is above the water table at all times.

EPT richness index - An index based on the sum of the number of taxa in three insect orders, Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies), that are composed primarily of species considered to be relatively intolerant to environmental alterations.

Equal-width increment (EWI) sample - A composite sample across a section of stream with equal spacing between verticals and equal transit rates within each vertical that yields a representative sample of stream conditions.

Eutrophication - The process by which water becomes enriched with plant nutrients, most commonly phosphorus and nitrogen.

Fertilizer - Any of a large number of natural or synthetic materials, including manure and nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium compounds, spread on or worked into soil to increase its fertility.

Fixed Sites - NAWQA's most comprehensive monitoring sites. See also Basic Fixed Sites and Intensive Fixed Sites.

Flowpath - An underground route for ground-water movement, extending from a recharge (input) zone to a discharge (output) zone such as a shallow stream.

Flowpath study - Network of clustered wells located along a flowpath extending from a recharge zone to a discharge zone, typically a shallow stream. The studies examine the relations of land-use practices, ground-water flow, and contaminant occurrence and transport. These studies are located in the same area as a land-use study.

Freshwater chronic criteria - The highest concentration of a contaminant that freshwater aquatic organisms can be exposed to for an extended period of time (4 days) without adverse effects. See also Water-quality criteria.

Gaging station - A particular site on a stream, canal, lake, or reservoir where systematic observations of hydrologic data are obtained.

Ground water - In general, any water that exists beneath the land surface, but more commonly applied to water in fully saturated soils and geologic formations.

Habitat - The part of the physical environment where plants and animals live.

Headwaters - The source and upper part of a stream.

Heterotrophs - Organisms that obtain their energy from by consuming living or dead organic material, and includes all animals and some bacteria.

Hydrograph - Graph showing variation of water elevation, velocity, streamflow, or other property of water with respect to time.

Hydrologic cycle - The circulation of water from the sea, through the atmosphere, to the land, and thence back to the sea by overland and subterranean routes.

Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) - An aggregated number, or index, based on several attributes or metrics of a fish community that provides an assessment of biological conditions.

Indicator sites - Stream sampling sites located at outlets of drainage basins with relatively homogeneous land use and physiographic conditions; most indicator-site basins have drainage areas ranging from 20 to 200 square miles.

Integrator or Mixed-use site - Stream sampling site located at an outlet of a drainage basin that contains multiple environmental settings. Most integrator sites are on major streams with relatively large drainage areas.

Intensive Fixed Sites - Basic Fixed Sites with increased sampling frequency during selected seasonal periods and analysis of dissolved pesticides for 1 year. Most NAWQA Study Units have one to two integrator Intensive Fixed Sites and one to four indicator Intensive Fixed Sites.

Intermittent stream - A stream that flows only when it receives water from rainfall runoff or springs, or from some surface source such as melting snow.

Intolerant organisms - Organisms that are not adaptable to human alterations to the environment and thus decline in numbers where human alterations occur. See also Tolerant species.

Invertebrate - An animal having no backbone or spinal column. See also Benthic invertebrate.

Land-use study - A network of existing shallow wells in an area having a relatively uniform land use. These studies are conducted in the same hydrogeologic setting as the Study-Unit Survey but have the goal of relating the quality of shallow ground water to land use. See also Study-Unit Survey.

Load - General term that refers to a material or constituent in solution, in suspension, or in transport; usually expressed in terms of mass or volume.

Macrophyte - Vascular plants, represented by aquatic angiosperms: non-vascular plants, principally bryophytes (mosses); and sometimes used for large filamentous algae like Cladophora.

Major ions - Constituents commonly present in concentrations exceeding 1.0 milligram per liter. Dissolved cations generally are calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium; the major anions are sulfate, chloride, fluoride, nitrate, and those contributing to alkalinity, most generally assumed to be bicarbonate and carbonate.

Mean - The average of a set of observations, unless otherwise specified.

Mean discharge (MEAN) - The arithmetic mean of individual daily mean discharges during a specific period, usually daily, monthly, or annually.

Median - The middle or central value in a distribution of data ranked in order of magnitude. The median is also known as the 50th percentile.

Metabolism - This term is used to refer to the combination of primary productivity and community respiration and is measured using a variety of dissolved oxygen budget methods.

Method detection limit - The minimum concentration of a substance that can be accurately identified and measured with present laboratory technologies.

Micrograms per liter (µg/L) - A unit expressing the concentration of constituents in solution as weight (micrograms) of solute per unit volume (liter) of water; equivalent to one part per billion in most streamwater and ground water. One thousand micrograms per liter equals 1 mg/L.

Midge - A small fly in the family Chironomidae. The larval (juvenile) life stages are aquatic.

Milligram (mg) - A mass equal to 10^{-3 grams}.

Milligrams per liter (mg/L) - A unit expressing the concentration of chemical constituents in solution as weight (milligrams) of solute per unit volume (liter) of water; equivalent to one part per million in most streamwater and ground water. One thousand micrograms per liter equals 1 mg/L.

Minimum reporting level (MRL) - The smallest measured concentration of a constituent that may be reliably reported using a given analytical method. In many cases, the MRL is used when documentation for the method detection limit is not available.

Nitrate - An ion consisting of nitrogen and oxygen (NO₃-). Nitrate is a plant nutrient and is very mobile in soils.

Nonpoint source - A pollution source that cannot be defined as originating from discrete points such as pipe discharge. Areas of fertilizer and pesticide applications, atmospheric deposition, manure, and natural inputs from plants and trees are types of nonpoint source pollution.

Nonpoint source contaminant - A substance that pollutes or degrades water that comes from lawn or cropland runoff, the atmosphere, roadways, and other diffuse sources.

Nonpoint-source water pollution - Water contamination that originates from a broad area (such as leaching of agricultural chemicals from crop land) and enters the water resource diffusely over a large area.

Nutrient - Element or compound essential for animal and plant growth. Common nutrients in fertilizer include nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

Nutrient criteria - EPA's section 304(a) nutrient criteria recommendations are intended to protect against the adverse effects of cultural eutrophication.

Overland flow - The part of surface runoff flowing over land surfaces toward stream channels.

Part per million (ppm) - Unit of concentration equal to one milligram per kilogram or one milligram per liter.

Perennial stream - A stream that normally has water in its channel at all times.

Periphyton - Organisms that grow on underwater surfaces, including algae, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and other organisms.

pH - The logarithm of the reciprocal of the hydrogen ion concentration (activity) of a solution; a measure of the acidity (pH less than 7) or alkalinity (pH greater than 7) of a solution; a pH of 7 is neutral.

Phosphorus - A nutrient essential for growth that can play a key role in stimulating aquatic growth in lakes and streams.

Photosynthesis - Synthesis of chemical compounds by organisms with the aid of light. Carbon dioxide is used as raw material for photosynthesis and oxygen is a product.

Physiography - A description of the surface features of the Earth, with an emphasis on the origin of landforms.

Phytoplankton - See Plankton.

Plankton - Floating or weakly swimming organisms at the mercy of the waves and currents. Animals of the group are called zooplankton and the plants are called phytoplankton.

Point source - A source at a discrete location such as a discharge pipe, drainage ditch, tunnel, well, concentrated livestock operation, or floating craft.

Point-source contaminant - Any substance that degrades water quality and originates from discrete locations such as discharge pipes, drainage ditches, wells, concentrated livestock operations, or floating craft.

Pollutant - Any substance that, when present in a hydrologic system at sufficient concentration, degrades water quality in ways that are or could become harmful to human and/or ecological health or that impair the use of water for recreation, agriculture, industry, commerce, or domestic purposes.

Primary production - The rate of formation of organic material from inorganic carbon by photosynthesis.

P/R ratios - The ratio of primary production to respiration, with P/R > 1 inferring that more oxygen is produced than used (autotrophic system) and P/R < 1 inferring that more oxygen is used than is produced (heterotrophic system).

Relative abundance - The number of organisms of a particular kind present in a sample relative to the total number of organisms in the sample.

Respiration - The amount of oxygen consumed in water by biological processes.

Riparian - Areas adjacent to rivers and streams with a high density, diversity, and productivity of plant and animal species relative to nearby uplands.

Riparian zone - Pertaining to or located on the bank of a body of water, especially a stream.

Runoff - Excess rainwater or snowmelt that is transported to streams by overland flow, tile drains, or ground water.

Sediment - Particles, derived from rocks or biological materials, that have been transported by a fluid or other natural process, suspended or settled in water.

Solute - See Solution.

Species - Populations of organisms that may interbreed and produce fertile offspring having similar structure, habits, and functions.

Species diversity - An ecological concept that incorporates both the number of species in a particular sampling area and the evenness with which individuals are distributed among the various species.

Species (taxa) richness - The number of species (taxa) present in a defined area or sampling unit.

Specific conductance - A measure of the ability of a liquid to conduct an electrical current.

Streamflow - A type of channel flow, applied to that part of surface runoff in a stream whether or not it is affected by diversion or regulation.

Stream order - A ranking of the relative sizes of streams within a watershed based on the nature of their tributaries. The smallest unbranched tributary is called first order, the stream receiving the tributary is called second order, and so on.

Study Unit - A major hydrologic system of the United States in which NAWQA studies are focused. Study Units are geographically defined by a combination of ground- and surface-water features and generally encompass more than 4,000 square miles of land area.

Substrate size - The diameter of streambed particles such as clay, silt, sand, gravel, cobble and boulders.

Subsurface drain - A shallow drain installed in an irrigated field to intercept the rising ground-water level and maintain the water table at an acceptable depth below the land surface.

Surface water - An open body of water, such as a lake, river, or stream.

Suspended (as used in tables of chemical analyses) - The amount (concentration) of undissolved material in a water-sediment mixture. It is associated with the material retained on a 0.45- micrometer filter.

Suspended sediment - Particles of rock, sand, soil, and organic detritus carried in suspension in the water column, in contrast to sediment that moves on or near the streambed.

Suspended-sediment concentration - The velocity-weighted concentration of suspended sediment in the sampled zone (from the water surface to a point approximately 0.3 foot above the bed) expressed as milligrams of dry sediment per liter of water-sediment mixture (mg/L).

Suspended solids - Different from suspended sediment only in the way that the sample is collected and analyzed.

Synoptic sites - Sites sampled during a short-term investigation of specific water-quality conditions during selected seasonal or hydrologic conditions to provide improved spatial resolution for critical water-quality conditions.

Taxon (plural taxa) - Any identifiable group of taxonomically related organisms.

Taxa richness - See Species richness.

Tertiary-treated sewage - The third phase of treating sewage that removes nitrogen and phosphorus before it is discharged.

Tile drain - A buried perforated pipe designed to remove excess water from soils.

Tolerant species - Those species that are adaptable to (tolerant of) human alterations to the environment and often increase in number when human alterations occur.

Total concentration - Refers to the concentration of a constituent regardless of its form (dissolved or bound) to suspended sediment in a sample.

Turbidity - Reduced clarity of surface water because of suspended particles, usually sediment.

Un-ionized ammonia - The neutral form of ammonia-nitrogen in water, usually occurring as NH₄OH. Un-ionized ammonia is the principal form of ammonia that is toxic to aquatic life. The relative proportion of un-ionized to ionized ammonia (NH₄+) is controlled by water temperature and pH. At temperatures and pH values typical of most natural waters, the ionized form is dominant.

Water-quality criteria - Specific levels of water quality which, if reached, are expected to render a body of water unsuitable for its designated use. Commonly refers to water-quality criteria established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Water-quality criteria are based on specific levels of pollutants that would make the water harmful if used for drinking, swimming, farming, fish production, or industrial processes.

Water-quality guidelines - Specific levels of water quality which, if reached, may adversely affect human health or aquatic life. These are nonenforceable guidelines issued by a governmental agency or other institution.

Water-quality standards - State-adopted and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-approved ambient standards for water bodies. Standards include the use of the water body and the water-quality criteria that must be met to protect the designated use or uses.

Water year - The continuous 12-month period, October 1 through September 30, in U.S. Geological Survey reports dealing with the surface-water supply. The water year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends and which includes 9 of the 12 months. Thus, the year ending September 30, 1980, is referred to as the "1980" water year.

Yield - The mass of material or constituent transported by a river in a specified period of time divided by the drainage area of the river basin.