Glossary of Terms

Here at Nature minute, we use a lot of big words, or even just smaller words you've probably never heard before. It's a fine line between going over your head with technical terms and dumbing it down too much. In the interest of walking that line, here are some of the words you might hear thrown around the office or in the field.

Alluvium- eroded sediments, deposited on land by water. Areas are sometimes referred to as "alluvial plains"; these are where the soil is made up of mostly alluvium.
Benthic- the bottom of a body of water. A river bed and the sea floor are benthic zones, or benthos. Benthic also refers to the organisms living in the benthos.

These insect larvae are benthic creatures

Brumation- a state of lowered metabolic activity in cold-blooded animals; it is similar to hibernation.
Crepuscular- active around dawn and dusk. Deer are crepuscular mammals.

Deer being crepuscular in my back yard, circa 2015

Epiphyte- plants which grow on other plants, but are not parasitic. In the Pacific Northwest, ferns often grown in trees.

Epiphytic ferns

Ephemeral- seasonal. During the spring melt, ephemeral streams and waterfalls form in the mountains.

Ephemeral waterfall cascading down a hillside

Fossorial- digging species which live mainly underground. Moles and badgers are fossorial mammals.
Hadal- the deepest oceanic zone. Deep sea trenches are the hadal zone.
Littoral- the nearshore zone of a body of water, from the high tide line to the shoreline.

This horseshoe crab is in the littoral zone

Torpor- a state of lowered metabolic activity and body temperature in warm-blooded animals. Like brumation, it is similar to hibernation.
Transpiration- water exhalation by a plant. Water is lost as vapor through pores in the leaves.
Ungulate- mammals with a hoof. They come in 2 orders: Artiodactyla, which have an even number of toes, and Perissodactyla, which have an odd number of toes. Those crepuscular deer are ungulates.