Acid:
Chemistry. a. of an acid. b.
Having a high concentration of acid. --acidic
Alkaline: Relating to or containing an alkali. 2. Having a pH greater than 7.
-alkalinity
Auxin: Any of several plant growth hormones.
Bed: The smallest lithostratigraphic unit commonly ranging in thickness from a
centimeter to a meter or two and distinguishable from beds above and below.
Bog: An area of soft, naturally waterlogged ground.
Carbon 14: A naturally radioactive carbon isotope with atomic mass 14 and
half-life 5,780 years, used in carbon dating.
Carbon dating: The estimation of the age of an ancient object, such as a fossil,
by measuring its content of carbon 14.
Catkin: A dense, often drooping cluster of scalelike flowers found in willows,
birches, and oaks.
Cilium: A microscopic hairlike process extending from a cell or unicellular
organism and capable of rhythmical motion. pl. cilia
Conifer: A cone-bearing tree such as a pine or fir. --coniferous
Deciduous: Falling off at a specific season or stage of growth. 2. Shedding
foliage at the end of the growing season: deciduous trees.
Drift: A general term for all rock material transported by glaciers and
deposited directly from the ice or through the agency of meltwater.
End moraine: A ridge like accumulation of till that marks a stillstand position
of a present or past glacier front.
Erratic: A rock fragment carried by glacial ice, deposited at some distance from
the outcrop from which it was derived, and generally resting on bedrock of
different lithology. Size ranges from a pebble to a house-size block
Esker: A serpentine ridge of roughly stratified gravel and sand that was
deposited by a stream flowing in or beneath the ice of a stagnant or retreating
glacier and was left behind when the ice melted. Length ranges from less than
100m to more than 500 km (counting gaps), and in height from 3 to more than 300
m.
Exotic: From another part of the world.
Fodder: Feed for livestock, especially coarsely chopped stalks of corn, hay, or
straw
Foliage: Plant leaves, especially tree leaves, collectively.
Glucose: A monosaccharide sugar, C.
Ground moraine: An accumulation of till after it has been deposited or released
from the ice during ablation, to form an extensive area of low relief devoid of
linear elements.
Herb: A plant that does not have a woody stem and usually dies back at the end
of each growing season.
Hydraulic conductivity: The rate of flow of water in gallons per day through a
cross section of one square foot under a unit hydraulic gradient at prevailing
temperatures.
Kame: A mound, knob, or short irregular ridge, composed of stratified sand and
gravel deposited by a subglacial stream as a fan or delta at the margin of a
melting glacier.
Kettle: A depression in glacial drift, especially in outwash and a kame field,
formed by the melting of a detached block of stagnant ice that was carried in
the drift. It often contains a lake or swamp.
Lobe: A rounded part or projection, especially of an organic structure: the lobe
of an ear.
Loess: A windblown deposit of fine-grained silt or clay.
Nitrogen: A nonmetallic element that constitutes nearly four fifths of the air
by volume, occurring as a colorless, odorless, almost inert diatomic gas, N. --
nitric -- nitrogenous
Outwash: Sand and gravel deposited by meltwater streams in front of the end
moraine or the margin of an active glacier.
Outwash plain: A broad, gently sloping sheet of outwash deposited by meltwater
streams flowing in front of or beyond a glacier.
Permeable: Capable of being permeated, especially by liquids or gases.
--permeability
Permeate: To spread or flow throughout; pervade. 2. To pass through openings or
small gaps of. -permeated --permeating
pH: A measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a solution, numerically equal to 7
for neutral solutions, increasing with increasing alkalinity and decreasing with
increasing acidity.
Peat: Partially carbonized vegetable matter, usually mosses, found in bogs and
used as fertilizer and fuel.
Porous: Full of or having pores. Admitting the passage of gas or liquid through
pores or interstices. -- porosity
Pressure gradient: In a stream, the slope of a line representing the sum of
kinetic and potential energy along the channel length. It is equal to the slope
of the water surface in steady, uniform flow.
Raceme: An inflorescence having flowers arranged singly along a common stem.
Retentive capacity: The ability of a soil to hold water.
Rhizome: A horizontal, usually underground stem that often sends out roots and
shoots. Also called rootstalk, rootstock.
Rootstock: See rhizome. 2. A root used as a stock for plant propagation.
Saturate: To soak, fill, or load to capacity. --saturated, --saturating
Stratify: To form, arrange, or deposit in layers. --stratified, --stratifying
Taproot: The main root of a plant, growing straight downward from the stem.
Terminal moraine: The outermost end moraine of a glacier or ice sheet, marking
the maximum advance of the ice.
Till: Unstratified drift, deposited directly by a glacier without reworking by
meltwater, and consisting of a mixture of clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders
ranging widely in size and shape.
Till plain: An extensive area, with a flat to undulating surface, underlain by
till with subordinate end moraines; such plains occupy parts of Indiana,
Illinois, and Iowa.
Unsaturated: Not saturated.
Valley trains: A long, narrow body of outwash, deposited by meltwater streams
far beyond the terminal moraine or the margin of an active glacier and confined
within the walls of a valley below the glacier.
Watershed: A ridge of high land dividing two areas drained by different river
systems. Also called water parting. 2. The region draining into a body of water.
Water table: The level below which the ground is saturated with water. In this
sense, also called, water level.
Whorl: Botany. An arrangement of three or more leaves, petals, or other organs
radiating from a single node.