Water Vocabulary

1.  Aquifer

Definition: A water-bearing bed of permeable rock, sand, or gravel capable of yielding considerable quantities of water.
Context: Beneath our feet, water permeates rock and gravel, forming aquifers.

2.  Contaminate

Definition: To render unfit for use by the introduction of unwholesome or undesirable elements.
Context: Chemicals in soil can contaminate nearby waters.

3.  Evaporate

Definition: To dissipate as a visible cloud or in particles that are too minute to be visible.
Context: In the water cycle, water evaporates, forms clouds, rains, and evaporates again.

 

4.  Irrigate

Definition: To supply with water by artificial means.
Context: Water from the river was used to irrigate nearby fields.

 

5.  Percolate

Definition: To cause a liquid to pass through a permeable substance.
Context: As water percolates through the soil and cracks in rocks, it picks up mineral matter.

 

6.  Radiation

Definition: Radiation is energy that comes from a source and travels through some material or through space. Light, heat and sound are types of radiation.  

Context: The radiation from the sun helps plants grow.

 

7.  Reservoir

Definition: A place where something is kept in store.
Context: To create the reservoirs, precious valley bottoms were flooded, drowning farm and forest.

 

8.  Toxin

Definition: Any of various poisonous substances that are specific products of the metabolic activities of living organisms.
Context: High levels of toxins present in the eels brought the fishery to a near standstill.

 

 

9.  Wetland

Definition: Land containing much soil moisture.
Context: Wetlands sustain life and purify water that moves through them.

 

10. Habitat

Definition: The physical location or type of environment in which an organism or biological population lives or occurs.

Context: Many endangered species vanish because their habitat vanishes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

11. Lagoon

Definition:

  1. A shallow body of water, especially one separated from a sea by sandbars or coral reefs.
  2. A shallow body of liquid waste material, as one in a dump.

 

Context: Birds can find food more easily in a quiet lagoon.

 

 

12. Marine

Definition:

  1. Of or relating to the sea: marine exploration.
  2. Native to, inhabiting, or formed by the sea: marine animals.

 

Context: A marine sanctuary is a place where plants, animals, and even rocks and shells, are protected.

 

 

13. Ecosystem

Definition:

An ecosystem is a system whose members benefit from each other's participation via symbiotic relationships

Context: Soil, water, algae, insects, fish and frogs are some of the organisms that make up the ecosystem of a pond.

 

 

14. Estuary

Definition:

  1. The part of the wide lower course of a river where its current is met by the tides.
  2. An arm of the sea that extends inland to meet the mouth of a river.

 

Context: In an estuary fresh and salt water meet.

 

 

 

15. Tidal wrack

Definition:

  1. Dried seaweed, driven onto the beach by the sea
  2. Marine vegetation, especially kelp.

 

Context: The tidal wrack smelled bad and attracted a lot of flies.

 

 

 

16. Watershed

Definition:

  1. A ridge of high land dividing two areas that are drained by different river systems. Also called water parting.
  2. The region draining into a river, river system, or other body of water.
  3. The term watershed describes an area of land that drains downslope to the lowest point.

Context: Communities that share a watershed should do resourcel planning together.