Terms to Learn for Next Tuesday July 21st's Presentation

ESL/LINC Vocabulary on Great Lakes

1. Conservation: The act of protecting nature – water, animals and plants
2. Creek: is a small river
3. Drainage Basin: An area drained by a river system. A drainage basin acts like a funnel collecting all the water within the area covered by the basin and channeling it into a waterway, like Lake Ontario
4. Ecology: the study of the relationships between living organisms (plants, animals) and their environment
5. Ecosystem: A collection of living things and the environment in which they live
6. Estuary: is a wide body of water formed where a large river meet the sea. Estuaries experience tidal flows and their water is a changing mixture of fresh and salt water
7. Endangered Species: Animals or plants facing possible extinction
8. Fertilizer: Any substance, such as manure or a mixture of chemicals, added to soil to increase its productivity
9. Food chain: The series of steps by which energy is obtained, used, and transformed by living things. For example: sunlight helps grain to grow, the grain feeds cattle, and humans eat the cattle
10. Food web: A combination of food chains that integrate to form a network
11. Habitat: A place that is natural for the life and growth of an organism
12. Herbicide: A chemical substance or preparation for killing plants, especially weeds
13. Insecticide: A chemical substance or preparation for killing insects and bugs
14. Invasive Fish: A fish brought from another country that eventually out-competes the native fish, as it thrives in the new environment
15. Invasive Plant: A plant brought from another country that eventually out-competes the native plants, as it thrives in the new environment
16. Invasive Specie: Any species that is not native to an ecosystem, and whose introduction causes environmental harm to the ecosystem
17. Lake: A body of fresh or salt water of considerable size, surrounded by land and unconnected to the sea except by rivers or streams
18. Mollusk: An invertebrate animal of the phylum Mollusca, usually living in water and often having a soft body, protected by a hard outer shell
19. Native Plant: A plant that naturally grows in a given area or region
20. Native Fish: A fish that naturally breeds and lives in a given area or region
21. Neutralized Plant: A non-native plant brought from another country that adopts to the new environment without affecting the native plants
22. Ocean: The large body of salt water surrounding the continents or land masses, The Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and Arctic Oceans
23. Organism: An individual form of life, such as a plant, an animal, or a fungus
24. Pesticide: A chemical preparation used for destroying plant, fungal, or animal pests
25. Phosphate: A major nutrient required for good crop nutrition and plant growth; it is highly reactive and quickly binds to other elements. It is also found in commonly used soaps. A large buildup of phosphates can remove the oxygen from natural bodies of water
26. Pollutant: Any substance, such as chemicals or waste products, that makes the air, soil, or water harmful or unsuitable
27. Predator: An organism that kills and consumes another organism (prey); includes animals eating other animals, and animals eating plants
28. Prey: An organism that is killed and eaten by another organism
29. River: A large natural stream of fresh water flowing along a specific course, entering into Lake Ontario
30. Stream: A moving course of water, like a river
31. Threatened Species: Animals or plants that are likely to be endangered if factors threatening it are not reversed or removed
32. Wetland: A low-lying area of land that holds water naturally. Ponds, swamps, marshes, bogs and fens are examples of wetlands.
33. Water cycle: The process, involving evaporation and condensation, by which the Earth's water circulates through the environment
34. Watershed: A watershed is the area of land where all of the water that is on it or under it, drains into the same river, and eventually into a larger body of water, like a lake or ocean