NRWA Climate Change Glossary

The following terms are defined as they are used on the Nashua River Watershed Association's website.

Adaptation

Adjustments that societies or ecosystems make to limit the negative effects of climate change or to take advantage of opportunities provided by a changing climate (EPA definition).

Aquatic Buffers

Undeveloped area along a shoreline, wetland, or stream that protects the water body, filters runoff, and provides a corridor for movement and migration by wildlife.

Biodiversity

The variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence (National Geographic definition).

Biomes

Communities of flora and fauna that tend to exist together, such as the northern hardwood-hemlock-pine forests and central deciduous-oak-hickory forests found in the Nashua River watershed.

Carbon Cycle

The process in which carbon atoms continually travel from the atmosphere to the Earth and then back into the atmosphere (NOAA definition).

Carbon Footprint

The total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization, or company.

Carbon Sequestration

Processes by which trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide, release oxygen, and store carbon.

Climate Change

A significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. Climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among others, that occur over several decades or longer.

Climate Impact

A negative effect on a natural system due to climate change.

Conservation

The protection, preservation, management, or restoration of natural environments and the ecological communities that inhabit them (USDA definition).

Corridor

Connectivity through relatively narrow, linear strips of land or water. Upland strips normally contain cover.

Deforestation

Human-driven and natural loss of trees, which affects wildlife, ecosystems, weather patterns, and climate.

Ecology

The study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment.

"Flash" Drought

Short but severe drought conditions due to extraordinary heat and dryness, often caused by climate change.

Fluvial Geomorphology

The study of the interactions between the physical shapes of rivers, their water and sediment transport processes, and the landforms they create.

Fossil Fuels

Decayed organic matter from plants that accumulated in the earth over eons and is  extracted primarily in the form of coal, oil or natural gas for use as energy for transportation, heating, and industrial purposes.

Greenhouse Effect 

Retention of the sun's warmth in the Earth's lower atmosphere by greenhouse gases, primarily water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and fluorinated compounds.

Greenway

A corridor of undeveloped land preserved for recreational use or environmental protection, often along a river. Naturally vegetated greenways may protect river corridors and serve as aquatic buffers.

Groundwater

Water that exists underground in saturated zones beneath the land surface. The upper surface of the saturated zone is called the water table (USGS definition).

Habitat

Place where an organism makes its home. A habitat meets all the environmental conditions an organism needs to survive, including shelter, water, food, and space (National Geographic definition).

Habitat Fragmentation

Division of large, contiguous, landscapes into smaller, unconnected areas. Fragmentation can be caused by construction of roads, homes, subdivisions, commercial and industrial activities, and other human development and can negatively impact wildlife.

Hydrology

The branch of science concerned with the properties of the earth's water, and especially its movement in relation to land.

Infiltration

The process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil. If the rate of precipitation exceeds the rate of infiltration, runoff will usually occur unless there is some physical barrier.

Invasive Species

Plants, animals, and other living organisms that are non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem and can negatively alter the environment, such as by displacing native plants or creating monocultures.

Landscape Connectivity

The degree to which a landscape facilitates or impedes movement for animals and plants.

Landscape Permeability 

Developed landscapes that retain adequate natural areas to provide habitat or allow migration of wildlife and plants.

Low Impact Development

Systems and practices that use or mimic natural processes that result in the infiltration, evapotranspiration, or use of stormwater in order to protect water quality and associated aquatic habitat (EPA definition).

Meadow

An open habitat, or field, vegetated by grass, herbs and other non-woody plants. Meadows provide habitat for birds and wildlife, help to infiltrate water, protect against drought, and sequester carbon.

Mitigation

Human intervention to reduce the impact on the climate system including strategies to reduce greenhouse gas sources and emissions and enhance greenhouse gas sinks.

Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness Program (MVP)

Technical assistance available in Massachusetts for towns and cities to complete climate change vulnerability assessments, develop action-oriented resiliency plans, and implement top-priority climate change resilience projects.

Nature-Based Climate Solutions

Protecting or managing natural systems to mitigate climate impacts. Some Nature-Based Climate Solutions directly combat climate change by sequestering and storing carbon.

Non-Point Source Pollution

Non-point source pollution includes contaminants from surface runoff, groundwater discharge, sediment leaching, and atmospheric deposition. Pollution from many diffuse sources, such as fertilizers, oil and grease, road salt, and animal waste. These can be carried by rainfall or snowmelt runoff into waterways where they have harmful effects on drinking water supplies, recreation, fisheries and wildlife (EPA definition).

Paleoclimatology

The study of ancient climates, prior to the widespread availability of instrumental records, using records of climate conditions preserved in tree rings, locked in the skeletons of tropical coral reefs, sealed in glaciers and ice caps, and buried in laminated sediments from lakes and the ocean (NOAA definition).

Permeable Surface

Surfaces that let water pass through into the soil below. Unlike asphalt and concrete, permeable materials allow natural infiltration and slow the runoff of rainwater.

Pollinators

Anything that helps carry pollen from the male to female parts of flowers. Plants that are not self-pollinating depend on wind, water, birds, bees, butterflies, beetles, bats, and other small mammals for fertilization and the production of fruits, seeds, and young plants. 

Pollinator Plants

Flowering plants that provide nectar or pollen for a wide range of pollinating insects. Planting a pollinator garden supports the health of pollinators such as honey bees, native bees, and monarch butterflies.

Rain Garden

A vegetated landscape depression that collects rainwater from a roof, driveway, parking area, or street and allows it to soak into the ground. Benefits of planting rain gardens include slowing the flow of runoff, filtering out pollutants, and providing food and shelter for wildlife.

Renewable Energy

Energy resources that are often considered naturally replenishing such as hydro, geothermal, solar, wind, ocean thermal, wave action, and tidal action.

Reserve

A large resilient or resistant, protected area where climate-induced changes occur in a manner that allows plant and animal communities to migrate or adapt.

Resilience

A capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant multi-hazard threats with minimum damage to social well-being, the economy, and the environment (EPA Definition).

Resistance

The ability of an ecosystem or population to persist and remain relatively stable in response to climate change or other stress.  Landscapes that are resistant are particularly important for species that require specific habitat or have little ability to migrate, such as vernal pool species.

Restoration

Actions to reverse the current climate change trends and to restore the Earth to a healthy climate for humanity's well-being.

Sedimentation

In rivers, eroded or discharged organic and inorganic material transported by water that settles out as the water flow slows.

Stormwater

Runoff generated from rain and snowmelt events that flows over land or impervious surfaces, such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, and does not soak into the ground (EPA definition).  It often carries contaminants, such as sediment, heavy metals, organic molecules including oil & grease and pesticides, nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and pathogens.

Stormwater Infrastructure

Traditional "gray" infrastructure refers to curbs, gutters, drains, piping, and collection systems that collect and convey stormwater into a series of piping that ultimately discharges untreated stormwater into a local water body. "Green" stormwater infrastructure is designed to mimic nature and capture rainwater where it falls, reducing the volume of pollutants, such as sediment, nitrogen and phosphorus, entering our waterways (EPA definitions).

Sustainable Development 

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (UN definition).

Sustainability

A state in which the demands placed on the environment can be met without reducing its capacity to allow all people to live well, now and in the future.

Vernal Pool

An isolated wetland that is a shallow pool that fills in the spring and dries up annually or every few years. They supply essential breeding habitat for several species of animals, particularly amphibians, because they lack a fish population that would otherwise prey on them. 

Watershed

An area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet such as the outflow of a reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel (USGS definition).

Wetlands

Areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil, all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season (EPA definition).