Glossary:B Words
From Indian River Lagoon Project
backshore noun
That part of the beach that is usually dry, being reached only by the highest tides, and by extension, a narrow strip of relatively flat coast bordering the sea.
- The area of a shore that lies between the average high tide mark and the vegetation.
baffle box noun
An underground stormwater management device that uses barriers (or baffles) to slow the flow of untreated stormwater, allowing particulates to settle in the box before the stormwater is released into the environment.
Edge of a cut or fill; the margin of the watercourse; an elevation of the seafloor located on a continental shelf or an island shelf and over which the depth of water is relatively shallow but sufficient for safe surface navigation (reefs or shoals, dangerous to surface navigation may arise above the general depths of a bank).
bar-built estuary noun
areas where sandbars form parallel to the shore, partly enclosing the water behind them as the sandbars become islands.
barrier island noun
A long, narrow, sandy island that is above high tide and parallel to the shore that commonly has dunes, vegetated zones, and swampy terrains extending lagoonward from the beach.
A Basin Management Action Plan, or BMAP, is a comprehensive set of site-specific strategies to reduce or eliminate pollutant loadings and restore particular waterbodies to health.
Science of measuring water depths (usually in the ocean) in order to determine bottom topography.
- Bathymetry is the study of the "beds" or "floors" of water bodies, including the ocean, rivers, streams, and lakes.
Zone of unconsolidated material that extends landward from the low water line to the place where there is marked changes in material or physiographic form, or to the line of permanent vegetation (usually the effective limit of storm waves). A beach includes foreshore and backshore.
beach berm noun
Nearly horizontal portion of the beach or backshore formed by the deposit of materials by wave action. Some beaches have no berms, others have one or several.
bottom-dwelling flora and fauna; from tiniest microbenthos (bacteria) to medium-sized meiobenthos (nematode worms) to the highly visible macrobenthos (clams, polychaete worms).
Nearly horizontal portion of a beach or backshore having an abrupt fall and formed by wave deposition of material and marking the limit of ordinary high tides.
the number and variety of living things in an environment.
biofilter noun
living material or an organism that captures and biologically degrades pollutants.
relating to or denoting the cycle in which chemical elements and simple substances are transferred between living systems and the environment.
the part of the world in which life can exist; living organisms and their environment.
the animal and plant life of a particular region, habitat, or geological period.
of or having to do with life or living organisms; organic.
A boat is any vessel or conveyance that floats on or operates on the water and is under 197 feet (60 meters) length overall (LOA). A boat may be used for pleasure, commercial, or residential purposes. Boat is synonymous with small craft in marine use.
brackish water occurs in areas, usually estuaries and lagoons, where salt water oceans and fresh water rivers mix together.
