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	A multi agency project funded by US EPA's STAR Program

Glossary

Anthropogenic: Things that are caused by or attributed to humans. As used here, human-influenced factors that cause stress in natural systems.

Coastal margin: Based on language in the US EPA's request for proposals, we are looking at all major ecosystem types along the coast of the Great Lakes. These include coastal wetlands, embayments, and unprotected (high energy) shoreline. Samples may be collected within a zone extending 1 km landward and 1 km lakeward from the coast.

Coastal wetland: A wetland that has a connection with a larger water body (large lake, ocean, or estuary). In this case, wetlands that have a hydrologic connection with one of the Great Lakes.

Condition: As defined by the US EPA, condition refers to defining the current state of the ecosystem.

Environmental indicator: An indicator that provides information on the state of the environment. We are using the term to include both indicators of the conditon of natural ecosystems (ecosystem or state indicators), and also indicators of stressors affecting these ecosystems (stressor or pressure indicators).

Environmental variables: (also called environmental data). Natural and anthropogenic factors influencing ecosystems. Natural factors include climate, soils, geology, and landcover. Anthropogenic factors include land use alteration, pollutants, human-caused erosion, coastline alteration by dikes, etc.

geographic information systems (GIS): GIS allows the building of map layers for anything that can be linked to a geographic coordinate system (i.e. has a latitude and longitude). For example, starting with a base map of the Great Lakes watershed we can add layers showing population density, location of agricultural fields, land usage type of all the land area, location of dredging operations, and so on. In other words, a database system is used to link "map-like" data so a user can do things like query, search, sort and plot. Visit the NRGIS website.

Geomorphic Type: Coastal margin ecosystems differ greatly in their geology and morphology. Five distinct types of ecosystems were targeted for specific study: high energy, embayment, river-influenced wetland, protected wetland, or lacustrine wetland.

Indicator: Anything that provides information on the condition of something that is more difficult to measure. For example, a fever is an indicator of illness. For this project, indicators provide an indication of the condition of the Great Lakes coastal margin.

Integrity: As defined by the US EPA, integrity refers to the degree to which an ecosystem demonstrates a balanced, resilient community of organisms with biological diversity, species composition, structural redundancy, and functional processes comparable to that of natural habitats in the same region.

Macroinvertebrate: Invertebrates are animals lacking backbones. Common examples include insects, worms, leeches, clams, snails, crayfish, rotifers, zooplankton (like the Daphnia water fleas), and many other "critters". Macroinvertebrates are the larger of these animals; in this study, they are defined as those that are captured by a 250 um (0.25 mm) mesh.

Metric: Anything used in measurement. In this case, metrics are biological attributes that measure some aspect of environmental condition, or that measure human influence on the environment. A useful metric is easy to measure and interpret.

Pressure indicator: An indicator that provides information about anthropogenic stresses acting on an ecosystem. Also called a stressor indicator.

Riparian: The zone along the bank of a river.

Segment: A unit of Great Lakes coastline. The coastline was divided into segments to aid in sample site selection, and were created so that every meter of US coastline is part of only one segment. Segment endpoints were chosen as the midway point between adjacent 2nd order (Strahler stream order) and larger streams. Thus, each segment contains only one 2nd order or larger stream.

Segment shed: The runoff area for a segment of coastline. Essentially a watershed for a coastal margin segment.

State indicator: An indicator that provides information about the state of an ecosystem or specific biota within ecosystems. Also called an ecological indicator.

Stream order: A general way of describing the size of a stream or river. We are using the Strahler stream ordering system (Strahler 1964). The smallest permanent streams are called "first order". Two first order streams join to form a larger, second order stream; two second order streams join to form a third order, and so on. Smaller streams entering a higher-ordered stream do not change its order number. (example )

Stressor: Something that causes stress to a system. As used here, stressors typically refer to anthropogenic factors that adversely affect natural ecosystems. However, stressors may also be natural: floods, droughts, and harsh climates are also stressors.

Sustainability: As defined by the US EPA, sustainability refers to the ability of an ecosystem to maintain a defined/desired state of ecological integrity over time.

Watershed: The area from which a stream or lake derives its water. Also called a drainage basin or a catchment.