The Action Plan for Australian freshwater fishes
R. Wager and P. Jackson
Environment Australia, June 1993
ISBN 0 6421 6818 0
Glossary
- aestivation
- inactivity or dormancy during drought periods.
- anadromous
- refers to fishes which migrate from salt water to fresh water to spawn.
- bioaccumulation
- the accumulation of chemicals through the food chain by living organisms.
- brackish
- slightly salty.
- catadromous
- refers to fishes that migrate from fresh water to estuarine or salt water to spawn.
- channelisation
- artificial modification of a watercourse to ensure maximum flow and minimise flooding.
- conspecific
- belonging to the same species.
- congeneric
- belonging to the same genus.
- demersal
- refers to fish eggs which are neutrally or negatively buoyant and sink to the substrate.
- de-snagging
- removing logs or branches from a watercourse.
- detritus
- material from decomposing plants and animals.
- diadromous
- refers to fishes that migrate between fresh water and marine environments in either direction.
- emergent
- protruding above the water surface (eg emergent vegetation).
- endemic
- native or restricted to a particular geographic area.
- eutrophication
- the enrichment of waterbodies with nutrients, often leading to excessive plant growth and oxygen depletion.
- exotic
- refers to an organism from another zoogeographic region; usually applied to species from another country or continent
- fingerling
- refers to a young individual fish of a large species when it is about the size of a finger.
- fish way
- a structure allowing fish passage around an artificial barrier in a stream (eg fish ladders).
- flow regime
- the prevailing water flow pattern of a stream.
- fry
- newly hatched larvae which have used their yolk and are actively feeding.
- impoundment
- general term for any confined water body, usually due to artificial structures but may be natural.
- instream habitat
- specific place in a stream where an animal lives (usually submerged).
- introduction
- (of an organism) the intentional or accidental dispersal by human agency of a living organism outside its historically known range.
- larva
- newly hatched fish in which the yolk sac is still present (plural – larvae, adjective – larval).
- lentic
- refers to standing or still waters such as lakes.
- lotic
- refers to flowing waters such as rivers.
- native
- refers to an organism that naturally occurs in Australia.
- noxious
- dangerous or harmful as a pest.
- pelagic
- refers to fishes which inhabit open waters or near the surface, or to eggs or larvae which occur in these areas; pelagic eggs are buoyant or semi buoyant.
- pH
- a measure of acidity or alkalinity.
- plankton
- small animals (zooplankton) and plants (phytoplankton) which mainly float or drift near the surface of rivers, lakes or the sea.
- planktivorous
- describes a fish that eats plankton.
- recruitment
- the process of adding to the population or increasing the total numbers of a fish species.
- regulated streams
- streams in which the natural flow of water is artificially controlled or modified (through impoundments, locks or hydro-electricity schemes).
- Re-introduction
- (of an organism) the intentional movement of an organism into a part of its native range from which it has disappeared or become extirpated in historic times as a result of human activities or natural catastrophe.
- Re-stocking
- the movement of numbers of plants or animals of a species with the intention of building up the numbers of individuals of that species in an original habitat.
- riparian
- pertaining to or on a bank of a lake or river.
- salinity
- a measure of the amount of dissolved inorganic material in the water. Sea water has a salinity of about 34 (parts per thousand); freshwater has a salinity of less than 3.
- school
- a group of fishes moving together and behaving in a co-ordinated manner.
- siltation
- the process in which lighter soil fractions are transported into a waterway and carried downstream to be deposited in low flow or still areas as silt.
- snag
- logs or branches in a stream.
- substrate
- the bottom or a firm supporting surface which can act as a site for attachment.
- taxon
- group of similar animals; usually refers to genus or smaller grouping (plural – taxa).
- translocation
- the movement of living organisms from one area with free release in another; applies to the movement of species both within and between zoogeographic regions (see introduction, re-introduction and re-stocking).
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