Adaptation: A body part or behavior that helps a plant or animal to survive

Algae: Simple one-celled or many-celled plants capable of photosynthesis; usually aquatic.

Amphibious: Capable of living on both land and water for at least a portion of its life cycle

Arthropod: A group of animals that have exoskeletons, jointed legs, and segmented bodies; includes such animals as insects, spiders, ticks, centipedes, millipedes, crawfish, lobsters, and scorpions

Autotrophic: needing only carbon dioxide or carbonates as a source of carbon and a simple inorganic nitrogen compound for metabolic synthesis / not requiring a specified exogenous factor for normal metabolism

Biomass: the amount of living matter (as in a unit area or volume of habitat) / plant materials and animal waste used especially as a source of fuel

Bog: A poorly drained fresh water wetland with a thick layer of peat moss, usually in a low area, and often with carnivorous plants.

Brackish: A mixture of salt and fresh water

Buttress: The broadened base of a tree trunk that helps to support the tree.

Canines: Teeth generally long and pointed, between the incisors and molars of many mammals; they are generally used for stabbing or puncturing.

Carrion: Dead and decaying flesh

Carnivore: An animal that eats only other animals; also an order of mammals that includes bears, cats, raccoons and the weasel family.

Chennier: A Louisiana term for a high place, often a natural levee, from the French for 'oak.'

Cold-blooded: See ectotherm and exotherm

Conservation: Planned management of a natural resource to prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect

Consumer: An animal that eats other plants or animals in a food chain.

Crustacean: An arthropod with 5 sets of legs; crawfish, crabs, and shrimp are crustaceans.

Cypress knee: Part of a cypress tree's root system that jut out of the ground, often extending above the high water mark.

Decomposer: Organisms, bacteria and fungi that feed on and break down organic substances such as dead plants and animals.

Detritus: Dead plant, animal and other organic material.

Ecosystem: A community of organisms (plants and animals), interacting with each other and the non-living things in their environment.

Ectotherm: An animal that maintains its body temperature within fairly narrow limits by behavioral means such as basking or seeking shade.

Egg tooth: A small, sharp structure on an animal's upper jaw that helps it chip through its shell during hatching. The egg tooth is usually lost within a week or so after the young animal hatches.

Emergent: An aquatic plant that is rooted in a pond or stream bottom and has stems and leaves above the surface

Endoskeleton: A skeleton that is contained within the body

Endotherm: An animal that is able to maintain a body temperature that varies only within narrow limits by means of internal mechanisms, (i.e. sweating, panting, or shivering). Birds and mammals are endotherms.

Erosion: The wearing away of land by wind or water

Estuary: A partially closed coastal body of water where fresh water and salt water meet

Exoskeleton: The hard outer case of an animal that offers support and protection.

Exotherm: An animal whose body temperature varies only within narrow limits by external means, (i.e. air temperature, lying in the sun, or hiding in the shade). Reptiles and amphibians are exotherms.

Food Chain: The transfer of energy from the sun to plants to plant-eating animals, to animals that eat them, and so on. Each organism can be described by its position in the energy flow.

Food Web: A model more complex than a food chain that shows the relationship of plants and animals to each other. While a food chain will have one representative, a food web shows the multiple organisms that are interacting at each level.

Fresh Water Marsh: A wetland in which grasses are the predominant vegetation.

Fungi: A diverse group of mainly terrestrial organisms separated from other plants by their lack of chlorophyll. They are generally saprophytic or parasitic.

Habitat: The environment in which an organism lives

Herbivore: An animal that eats plants.

Humidity: The amount of water vapor in the air

Humus: A soil that is made of decayed plant and animal matter, such as leaves, plants insects, etc.

Hydric: characterized by, relating to, or requiring an abundance of moisture <a hydric habitat> <a hydric plant>

Hydrophytic / Hydrophyte: a plant growing in water or in soil too waterlogged for most plants to survive

Incisors: Teeth located in the front of mammals' mouths, usually used for snipping or gnawing. Incisors are very pronounced in rodents and rabbits and, in these two groups, grow throughout the animals' lives.

Indigenous: Describing an organism that is natural to an area, rather than introduced.

Keratin: An organic material that is the base for hair, nails, hooves, and the exoskeletons of arthropods.

Life Cycle: The sequence of changes making up the span of an organism's life from the fertilization of gametes to the same stage in the subsequent generation.

Mangrove swamp: A wetland characterized by saltwater and tropical evergreen trees and shrubs (mangroves) that have stilt-like prop roots and stems, often forming a dense thicket along tidal shores.

Metamorphosis: The change of an insect (or other animal) from one form to another as it develops into an adult

Migration: Movement, usually seasonal, from one region or climate to another for the purpose of feeding or breeding

Molars: The back teeth that have surfaces adapted for grinding.

Molt: To shed the exoskeleton, outer skin, or feathers.

Nictitating Membrane: The third eyelid in amphibians, reptiles, birds and some mammals (e.g. rabbits).

Nocturnal: Active at night

Omnivore: An animal that eats both animals and plants.

Organic: Derived from living organisms.

Peat: Partially decomposed plant material that accumulates in water-logged anaerobic conditions in temperate humid climates, often forming a layer several meters deep. Peat is used in fuel, and is the first step in coal formation.

pH: A measure that indicates the relative acidity or alkalinity of a substance. The pH scale ranges from 0 (most acid) to 14 (most basic), with a pH of 7 being neutral.

Photosynthesis: The process by which green plants synthesize carbohydrates (food) from carbon dioxide and water using light as an energy source, and releasing oxygen as a byproduct.

Phytoplankton: Microscopic free-floating aquatic plants.

Pollutant: A substance that contaminates an environment.

Pneumatophore: a root often functioning as a respiratory organ in a wetland plant

Predator: An organism that captures another organism to obtain food.

Prey: An animal taken by a predator as food.

Primary Consumer: Refers to an herbivore in the Food-Chain; an animal that takes nourishment directly from plants.

Producer: An organism that produces its own food; plants.

Prop root: A root found at the junction of stem and soil that serves to give additional support to the stem; a mangrove tree

Raptor: A raptor is a bird of prey which captures and kills its food in its specially adapted talons

Runoff: Rainfall not absorbed by soil.

Salinity: The degree of saltiness, usually referring to water.

Saltwater marsh: A wetland occurring along the coast, where grasses are the predominant vegetation.

Saprophyte: An organism that derives its nourishment by absorbing the products or remains of other organisms. Many bacteria and fungi are saprophytes and are important in food chains in returning nutrients to the soil by purification or decay.

Scavenger: An animal that primarily eats dead organisms.

Secondary Consumer: Refers to a predator; an animal that does not take nourishment directly from the plant but from those who feed upon the plant.

Sediment: material deposited by water, wind, or glaciers

Sedimentation: the action or process of forming or depositing sediment

Skeleton: A hard structure that supports and maintains the shape of an animal. It may be external to the body (exoskeleton) or within the body (endoskeleton).

Submergent: An aquatic plant that is rooted in a pond or stream bottom with completely submerged stems and leaves.

Swamp: A wetland in which the soil is saturated and often inundated with water. Trees are the dominant cover vegetation.

Territory: An area occupied and defended by an animal for such purposes as mating, nesting, and feeding. Territories are common among vertebrates, particularly birds.

Trophic level: A stage in a food chain; the first trophic level is occupied by the plants (primary producers) which provide the energy source for all higher levels, the herbivores (primary consumers) and the carnivores (secondary consumers)

Water cycle: The continuous circulation of water in systems throughout the planet, involving condensation, precipitation, runoff, evaporation and transpiration.

Watershed: The entire area that contributes surface runoff to a given drainage system.

Wetland: An area that, at least periodically, has waterlogged soil or is covered with a relatively shallow layer of water. Wetlands support plants and animals that are adapted to living in a watery environment. Bogs, freshwater and saltwater marshes, and swamps are examples of wetlands.

Zooplankton: Plankton composed of tiny animals and animal matter.