• Adaptation:: A physical or behavioural feature of an organism that increases its chance of survival such as the air breathing water spider that uses an air bubble to remain underwater for long periods.
• Algae:: Simple plants that are very small and live in water through photosynthesis, algae are the main producers of food and oxygen in water environments.
• Amphibians:An animal that may begin its life in water, but as an adult is at home in both water and land; frog, salamanders (newt) and caecilians (found in the tropics only).
• Aquatic: Lives in water.
• Bank:The rising ground that borders a stream, pond or other body of water.
• Bed:The ground under a river, pond or other body of water.
• Bog:Created when decaying moss or other vegetable matter sinks to the bottom of a lake or pond forming a slimy sediment. Over time, the water evaporates or seeps out leaving an area of wet spongy ground; usually has highly acidic peaty soil.
• Camouflage:Physical adaptations that will allow an organism to blend into its surroundings becoming effectively invisible.
• Carnivore:A consumer (organism) that eats animals.
• Community:All the living organisms present in an ecosystem.
• Conservation:Careful preservation and protection of natural resources from loss, harm, or waste, planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction or neglect.
• Consumer:An organism that is not capable of making food from non-living substances; must eat other organisms or parts of organisms to obtain energy.
• Crustacean:The group of animals having a hard shell and joint body parts; crabs or shrimp.
• Cycle:A sequence of repeating events.
• Dam:A barrier built across a body of water.
• DDT:A poisonous insecticide harmful to animals and humans, no longer manufactured in North America.
• Decay:To rot; the breakdown of disintegration of matter.
• Decomposer:An organism which consumes organic waste, reducing it to simple nutrients that can be used again by living things; decomposers include: moulds, insects, worms, and fungi.
• Dredge:To clear out the mud and sediment from a wetland area subsequent to filling it.
• Drought:A period of very dry weather.
• Ecology:The branch of biology that studies the interaction of living organisms with each other and their environment.
• Ecosystem:The relationship of living organisms between themselves and the non-living environment in a specific area.
• Emergent Plants:Water plants with roots and part of the stem submerged below water level, but the rest of the plant is above water; cattails and bulrushes.
• Endangered:A species that is in danger of extinction or extirpation throughout all or a significant portion of its Canadian Range.
• Erosion:The gradual wearing away of land forms or soil due to the action of glaciers, water or wind.
• Exoskeleton:The hard outer covering which supports or protects the soft tissue of an organism such as the shells on turtles, snails and lobsters.
• Extirpated:A species that no longer exists in the wild in Canada but exists elsewhere.
• Fair Test:A science inquiry where all variables are held constant; only one variable is manipulated all other variables are held constant.
• Fen:Low lying, wet land; covered wholly or partly by shallow, usually stagnant water; typically a fen has peaty soil that ranges from very alkaline to slightly acidic.
• Fertile:Something that is very productive; enhancing the growth of new life.
• Fertilizer:A mix of nutrients added to soil to make it richer.
• Fibre:Thready substance, such as a fibrous root.
• Fill:The process where low lying, wet land is filled with top soil in an attempt to make it arable or suitable for construction.
• First-order consumer:Animals which consume plants - herbivores such as deer or mice.
• Fix:To make more stable; plant roots fix soil making it more resistant to erosion.
• Floating Plants:Water plants with floating leaves; may be free-floating, such as duckweed, or attached to the bottom by a root system as in the case with pond lilies.
• Food Chain:Interrelations of organisms that feed upon each other, transferring energy and nutrients. Typically solar energy is processed by plants who are eaten by herbivores which in turn are eaten by carnivores: sun -> grass -> mouse -> owl
• Food Web:Interconnected food chains in an ecosystem.
• Fry:Baby fish.
• Gills:Organs that enable aquatic animals to obtain oxygen from the water.
• Glacier:A mass of moving ice and snow.
• Ground water:Fresh water located underground.
• Habitat:The place where an animal and plant community naturally occur.
• Herbivore:A consumer (organism) that feeds on plants.
• Hypothesis:A prediction in combination with a reason why events will occur; a because statement.
• Mammals:Warm-blooded animals that bear their young live.
• Mangroves:Tropical evergreen trees found in swamps.
• Marsh:Low-lying soft, wet land, at times covered by water, grasses, sedges, cattails and rushes are present; synonym: slough.
• Migrate:To travel over a distance with the change of season.
• Mollusk:A group of invertebrate animals who have soft, non-segmented body covered, usually, by a hard shell; snails, clams, oysters, mussels and slugs are mollusks,
• Muskeg:Wet, spongy ground; a synonym for bog.
• Naturalist:A person who appreciates, studies and interprets the natural environment.
• Niche:The way of life of an organism; how it get its food, its behaviour and impact on other organisms and habitat. The location and function of a living organism in its environment.
• Nutrients:A substance that provides the nourishment needed for the survival of an organism, nutrients or other pollutants.
• Nymphs:Immature form of insects, such as dragonflies, damselflies, and mayflies. The nymph resembles the adult but is lacking wings. This type of insect does not have a pupa stage.
• Omnivore:A consumer (organism) that eats both animals and plants.
• Organic Waste:The decaying or decayed matter from once living organisms.
• Organism:A living entity that include: plants, animals, monevans, protistans and fungi.
• Parasites:Animals or plants that feed off living organisms; the host organism is usually harmed by the presence of the parasite.
• Photosynthesis:Process by which green plants (chlorophyll containing) make food by combining carbon dioxide and water using energy from sunlight.
• Plains:A region of flat land.
• Pollute:To make dirty or impure through the introduction of a harmful or hazardous element.
• Pond:A relatively small body of standing, fresh water; usually shallow enough for sunlight to reach the bed.
• Pothole:A small pond.
• Predator:An animal that preys on other animals - like an anaconda or the, slightly more humble, diving beetle!
• Preservation:The protection and maintenance of organisms or ecosystems for personal or special use.
• Prey:The animals eaten by predators.
• Producer:An organism that makes its own food through the process of photosynthesis; all green plants are producers.
• Pupa:A stage in the life cycle of an insect between larvae and adult; the pupa appears dormant but inside the protective coating, changes are taking place.
• Ramsar Convention:An intergovernmental treaty for the conservation of wetlands.
• Reptile:Reptiles do not have feathers, fur or mammary glands like birds or mammals. Reptilians are mostly distinguished from moisture dependant amphibians by having a protective scaly skin, no aquatic larval stage, internal fertilization and an egg with a protective shell.
• Reserve:Land put aside by the government with the intent to protect a habitat.
• Scavenger:A carnivore that feeds on the remains of animals which it did not kill.
• Science Inquiry:The process of finding answers to questions. Necessary skills include questioning, proposing ideas, observing, experimenting, gathering and interpreting evidence.
• Second-order Consumer:Animals which consume herbivores.
• Sedge:Common plant found growing beside a wetland. Sedge plants have tall stems, sharp edged leaves and yellow-green flower heads.
• Shallow Water:The genre of wetland to which ponds and potholes belong.
• Slough:A synonym for marsh.
• Stereoscope:Low power binoculars with a 3D viewing device.
• Submerged Plants:Water plants that are completely below water such as waterweed and coontail.
• Swamp:Marshy land with dense vegetation including trees not common in Alberta.
• Third-order Consumer:Animals which eat second-order consumers; carnivores which eat other carnivores.
• Threatened:A species likely to become endangered in Canada if factors affecting it are not reversed.
• Toxic:Poisonous.
• Turbid:Cloudy or opaque water due to the suspension of sediment.
• Turbidity:The degree to which a body of water is turbid.
• Vulnerable:A species that is at risk because of low or declining numbers.
• Water Table:The level below which the ground is water soaked, the top most level of the ground water.
• Wetland:An area where the soil is either underwater or water soaked; may be permanent or temporary in nature. The Ramsar Convention defines wetlands as: ''Areas of marsh, fen, peatland or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres.''

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