Category 1

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Adverse effect - An action that has an apparent direct or indirect negative effect on the conservation and recovery of an ecosystem component listed as threatened or endangered [U.S. Forest Service (USFS)].

     

Ambient monitoring - All forms of monitoring conducted beyond the immediate influence of a discharge pipe or injection well and may include sampling of sediments and living resources [U.S.  Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region 5].

         

Ancillary data -      

 A. Other categories of data (see Water-quality data ) critical to interpreting water-quality data and formulating courses of action.  

 B. Those variables that might influence the indicators independent of what they are designed to denoefte [Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP)].

 C. Data collected as a consequence of collecting target data, but that are not considered to be essential (Ohio EPA).

       

Aquatic community - An association of interacting populations of aquatic organisms in a given water body or habitat (USEPA Region 5).

 

Aquatic ecosystem - The stream channel, lake or estuary bed, water, and (or) biotic communities and the habitat features that occur therein (USFS).

        

Aquifer - A body of rock that is sufficiently permeable to conduct ground water and to yield economically significant quantities of water to wells and springs [Bates, Robert L., and Jackson, Julia A., eds., 1987, Glossary of Geology (3d ed.): Alexandria, Va., American Geological Institute, p.  33].

     

Assessed waters - Water bodies for which the State is able to make use-support decisions based on actual information.  Such waters are not limited to those that have been directly monitored; it is appropriate in many cases to make judgments based on other information (USEPA Region 5, modified).

    

B

Beneficial uses - Management objectives.  

Benthic fauna (or benthos) - Organisms attached to or resting on the bottom or living in the bottom sediments of a water body (USEPA Region 5).

Bioaccumulate - The net uptake of a material by an organism from food, water, and (or) respiration that results in elevated internal concentrations [U.S.  Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)].

Biological assessment - An evaluation of the biological condition of a water body by using biological surveys and other direct measurements of a resident biota in surface water (USEPA Region 5).

Biological criteria (or biocriteria) - Numerical values or narrative expressions that describe the reference biological integrity of aquatic communities that inhabit water of a given designated aquatic life use (USEPA Region 5).

Biological integrity - Functionally defined as the condition of the aquatic community that inhabits unimpaired water bodies of a specified habitat as measured by community structure and function (USEPA Region 5).

Biological monitoring (or biomonitoring) - The use of a biological entity as a detector and its response as a measure to determine environmental conditions.  Toxicity tests and biological surveys are common biomonitoring methods (USEPA Region 5).

Biological survey (or biosurvey) - Consists of collecting, processing, and analyzing representative portions of a resident aquatic community to determine the community structure and function (USEPA Region 5).

      

Biomonitoring - The measurement of biological parameters in repetition to assess the current status and changes in time of the parameters measured (USFWS).

    

C

Community component - Any portion of a biological community.  The community component may pertain to the taxonomic group (fish, invertebrates, algae), the taxonomic category (phylum, order, family, genus, species), the feeding strategy (herbivore, omnivore, carnivore), or organizational level (individual, population, community association) of a biological entity within the aquatic community (USEPA Region 5).

Compliance monitoring - A type of monitoring done to ensure the meeting of immediate statutory requirements, the control of long-term water quality, the quality of receiving waters as determined by testing effluents, or the maintenance of standards during and after construction of a project (modified from Resh, D. M., and Rosenberg, V.H., eds., 1993, Freshwater Biomonitoring and Benthic Macroinvertebrates: New York, Chapman and Hall, 488 p).

      

Contaminant - A material added by humans or natural activities that may, in sufficient concentrations, render the environment unacceptable for biota.  The mere presence of these materials is not necessarily harmful (USFWS).

      

Critical habitat - Those areas designated as critical for the survival and recovery of threatened or endangered species (USFS).

          

D