Water Systems and the Water Cycle Vocabulary

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes covering water systems, the water cycle, environmental sustainability, and Indigenous perspectives on water stewardship.

Glacier

A river of ice formed from snow accumulated over hundreds of years that moves slowly downhill under the force of gravity.

Ground Water

Water that seeps through soil and cracks in rocks; source of water for underground springs and wells.

Heat Capacity

An amount of energy needed to raise the temperature.

Irrigation

The artificial process of applying controlled amounts of water to help grow crops, plants, or other things instead of relying on rainfall.

Microorganisms

Also know as microbes, these are tiny living organisms that are far to small to be seen with the naked eye.

Polar Ice-Caps

A frozen field of ice covering either the north or south pole.

Recharge

The natural process where water from the surface moves downward through the soil and rocks to refill underground aquifers.

Infiltration

A process where water seeps into the ground after rain or snow melt, eventually reaching the water table.

Salinity

A measure of the quantity of dissolved salt in water.

Septic Tank

An underground, watertight container used to treat and dispose of household wastewater in areas that are not connected to a city sewer system.

Sustainability

Being able to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Water Cycle

A continuous pattern in nature which water moves as it changes state above, on, and under the surface of earth.

Water Table

The depth at which loose rock and soil below earth's surface are saturated with water; the upper boundary of an aquifer.

Watershed

An area surrounded by highland and drained by river and its tributaries; all runoff from within the watershed leaves the watershed at the same exit.

Weather

The day-to-day environmental conditions in a given place at a given time, including temperature, wind speed, and precipitation.

Wetland

A unique ecosystem such as a swamp, marsh, or bog where the land is covered or saturated with water for all or most of the year, acting as nature's giant sponges and filters.

Aquifier

A geological formation of loose rock or soil that is saturated with ground water.

Bacteria

The most basic of all unicellular organisms; lacks a nucleous.

Bioremediation

The use of living things like fungi to remove contaminants from a polluted environment.

Chlorine

A naturally occurring chemical element that exists as a toxic, greenish-yellowish gas with a suffocating smell and the ability to kill harmful bacteria and microbes.

Climate Change

The long-term shift in earth's temperatures and weather patterns over many decades.

Contaminants

An undesirable substance in a mixture.

Desalination

The technology of removing salt and other minerals from water.

Filtration

A mechanical science process used to separate solid particles from a liquid or gas by passing the mixture through a filter.

Freshwater Distribution

Freshwater makes up only about $3\%$ of Earth's water, with nearly $69\%$ of that locked in glaciers and ice caps, leaving less than $1\%$ easily accessible on the surface.

Ocean Basins

Giant continental areas where all the water eventually travels out to the same ocean.

River Basins

Medium-sized areas found inside ocean basins that drain land into a single large river system.

Local Catchments

Small, local areas of land that drain rain into a neighborhood creek, pond, or small lake.

Hudson Bay Watershed

Canada's biggest watershed, which collects water from the flat Prairies and the Canadian Shield and dumps it into Hudson Bay.

Arctic Ocean Watershed

A massive northern network that uses the long Mackenzie River to drain about one-fifth of Canada's land into the Arctic.

Atlantic Ocean Watershed

A system that takes water from the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River and carries it out to the East Coast.

Pacific Ocean Watershed

A system where the Rocky Mountains trap water on the west coast and send it down fast, rushing rivers into the Pacific Ocean.

Gulf of Mexico Watershed

A tiny section of land at the very bottom of Alberta and Saskatchewan that tilts south, sending water to America's southern coast.

Stewardship

An Indigenous perspective of acting as caretakers of the Earth rather than its owners, treating water as a living relative that must be protected.

Indigenous Awareness

The use of generations of environmental knowledge to track water levels, ice, and fish health to spot ecosystem changes and pollution quickly.

Melting

When ice melts into water.

Condensation

When water vapour turns back into a liquid in the clouds.

Precipitation

When water falls from the clouds after being turned from vapour to liquid.

Evaporation

When water turns into water vapour.

Deposition

When water vapour turns into a solid.

Freezing

When liquid turns into a solid.

Transpiration

When water turns into gas/vapour through evaporation through trees.

Run Off/Surface Flow

The water flow on earth into a larger body of water like a river flowing into a lake or collection.

Collection

Places where water collects, such as a puddle, lake, or ocean.