Manly Hydraulics Laboratory
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Manly Hydraulics Laboratory Water Quality
Glossary
Water Quality Glossary
- Aeration
- Any process where a substance becomes permeated with air
or another gas. The terms is usually applied to aqueous liquids being brought
into intimate contact with air by spraying, bubbling or agitating the liquid.
- AHD
- Australian Height Datum. Level datum measured in metres.
- Algae
- Comparatively simple chlorophyll-bearing plants, most of
which are aquatic and microscopic in size.
- Alkalinity
- The quantitative capacity of aqueous media to react with
hydroxyl ions. The equivalent sum of the bases that are titratable with strong
acid. Alkalinity is a capacity of an aqueous system.
- Anthropogenic
- Produced or caused by humans.
- Benthos
- The sum total of organisms living in, or on, the sediments of
aquatic habitats.
- Bioaccumulation
- General terms describing a process by which chemical
substances are accumulated by aquatic organisms from water directly or through
consumption of food containing the chemicals.
- Biochemical Oxygen
- The decrease in oxygen content in mm/L of a sample of
demand (BOD) water in the dark at a certain temperature over a certain period
of time, which is brought about the bacterial breakdown of organic matter.
Usually the decomposition has proceeded so far that after 20 days that no
further change occurs. The oxygen demand is measured after 5 days (BOD5), at
which time 70% of the final value has usually been reached.
- Concentration
- The quantifiable amount of chemical in the surrounding
water, food or sediment.
- Criteria (water quality)
- Scientific data evaluated to derive the recommended limits for
water uses.
- Conductivity
- Concentration of major salts or major ions in solution.
- Cumulative
- Brought about, or increased in strength, by successive
additions at different times or in different ways.
- Detection limit
- The smallest concentration or amount of a substance that can
be reported as present with a specified degree of certainty by a definite,
complete analytical procedure.
- Dissolved oxygen
- The amount of oxygen in solution (in a water body)
- Diurnal Daily.
- Diurnal cycling Having a period of variation of one day.
- Effluent
- A complex waste material (eg liquid industrial discharge or
sewage) that may be discharged into the environment.
- Euphotic zone
- Surface waters to a depth of approximately 80-100 m; the lit
region that extends virtually from the water surface to the level at which
photosynthesis fails to occur because of reduced light penetration.
- Eutrophic
- Abundant in nutrients and having high rates of productivity
frequently resulting in oxygen depletion below the surface layer of a water
body.
- Eutrophication
- Enrichment of waters with nutrients, primarily phosphorus,
causing abundant aquatic plant growth.
- Evapotranspiration
- The combined loss of material from a given area during a
specified period of time by evaporation from the soil or water surface and by
transpiration from plants.
- Flocculation
- The process by which suspended colloidal or very fine
particles coalesce and agglomerate into well-defined hydrated floccules of
sufficient size to settle rapidly.
- The stirring of water after coagulant chemicals have been
added to promote the formation of particles that will settle.
- Hydrograph
- Graphical representation of either surface stream discharges
or water-level fluctuations in wells.
- Ingestion
- The swallowing or taking in of food materials.
- Invertebrates
- Animals lacking a dorsal column of vertebrae or a notochord.
- Leachate
- Water that has passed through a soil and that contains soluble
material removed from that soil.
- Leaching
- The downward movement of a material in solution through soil.
- Littoral zone
- The interface region between the land of the draining basin
and the open water of lakes.
- Macrophyte
- A member of the macroscopic plant life, especially of a water body.
- Macroscopic
- Large enough to be observed by the naked eye.
- Metabolism
- The sum of all chemical processes occurring in an organism or living cell.
- Organism
- Any living animal or plant; anything capable of carrying on life processes.
- Osmosis
- Diffusion of a solvent through a semi-permeable membrane
into a more concentrated solution, tending to equalise the
concentrations on both sides of the membrane.
- Oxidation
- The combination of oxygen with a substance, or the removal
of hydrogen from it or, more generally, any reaction in which
an atom loses electrons.
- Oxygenation
- The process of adding dissolved oxygen to a solution.
- Parameter
- A measurable or quantifiable characteristic or feature.
- Pathogen
- An organism capable of eliciting disease symptoms in another
organism.
- Pelagic
- Term applied to organisms of the plankton and nekton which
inhabit the open water of a sea or lake.
- Pesticide
- A substance or mixture of substances used to kill unwanted
species of plants or animals.
- pH
- Value taken to represent the acidity or alkalinity of an
aqueous solution. It is defined as the negative logarithm of
the hydrogen ion acidity of the solution.
- Photosynthesis
- The conversion of carbon dioxide to carbohydrates in the
presence of chlorophyll using light energy. General equation:
CO2 + 2H2O => (CH2O) + O2 + H2O
- Precipitation
- The formation of solid particles in a solution. Generally,
the settling out of small particles.
- The settling-out of water from cloud, in the form of rain,
hail, snow, etc.
- Respiration
- The chemical reactions from which an organism derives
energy, usually this requires the consumption of free oxygen
and the production of carbon dioxide.
- Redox
- The measurement of the reduction-oxidation potential of a
solution. Similar to a pH measurement which gives an indication of athe
acid/base status of a solution, ie indicates the hydrogen ion activity, a
redox measurement serves instead to determine the reduction-oxidation status
of a solution, ie indicates the electron activity. The growth of
micro-organisms is highly dependent on the redox level of the medium in which
they exist. Thus, anaerobic micro-organisms require a low redox potential
where they are found whilst aerobic micro-organisms require a high redox
potential.
- Salinity
- The level of dissolved salts in a water body expressed in parts
per thousand.
- Species
- Generally regarded as a group or organisms that resemble
each other to a greater degree than members of other groups and that form a
reproductively isolated group that will not normally breed with members of
another group.
- Steady state or Dynamic Equilibrium
- The state at which the competing rates of uptake
and elimination of a chemical within an organism or tissue are equal. An
apparent steady state is reached when the concen- tration of a chemical in
tissue remains essentially constant during a continuous exposure.
- Stratification
- Pertaining to the formation of layers.
- Suspension
- A system in which very small particles (solid, semi-solid, or
liquid) are more or less uniformly dispersed in a liquid or gaseous medium.
- Tolerance
- The ability of an organism to withstand adverse or other
environmental conditions for an indefinitely long exposure without dying.
- Turbidity
- Presence of suspended and colloidal substances of various origins.
- Turbulence
- Unorganised movement in liquids and gases resulting from eddy formation.
- Uptake
- A process by which materials are absorbed and incorporated
into a living organism.
(from Australian and New Zealand Environmental and Conservation Council)
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