anthropogenic: environmental alterations or perturbations resulting from the presence or activities of humans.
allochthonous: derived from outside a system, such as the leaves of terrestrial plants that fall into a stream.
alluvium: soil, clay, silt or gravel deposited by flowing water, as it slows, in a river bed, delta, estuary or flood plain.
authochthonous: derived from within a system, such as organic matter in a stream resulting from photosynthesis by aquatic algae and plants.
benthic: refers to material, especially sediment, at the bottom of an aquatic ecosystem; it can be used to describe the organisms that live on, or in, the bottom of a waterbody.
disturbance: has been defined as "...any relatively discrete event in time that disrupts ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability or the physical environment" (White and Pickett, 1985). However, to permit realistic comparisons to be made between studies, Lake (2000) promotes the definition of disturbance in purely physical terms, incorporating properties such as intensity, seasonality, extent, frequency and type. Under this definition “perturbation” is used to describe the combination of cause and effect, “disturbance” is the cause, and the effect is termed the “response” (Lake, 2000, after Glasby and Underwood, 1996 and Bender et al., 1984).
epipelic: living on/in fine sediments, namely mud or sand.
euphotic: the near-surface part of a water body where photosynthesis is possible.
herbaceous: referring to a herb, which is a plant that usually has soft leaves and stems that are not secondarily thickened and lignified, and which dies annually.
lentic: of or relating to standing water such as ponds, lakes and reservoirs, etc., rather than moving waters such as rivers and streams.
littoral: of or pertaining to the shore.
lotic: of or relating to an aquatic environment where there is moving water such as rivers and streams (compare with lentic).
macrophyte: an aquatic plant large enough to be seen with the naked eye; either emergent, submergent, or floating.
propagules: any part of an organism that is liberated from the adult form and which can give rise to a new individual, such as a fertilized egg or spore.
sclerophyllous: leaves which are hard and thickened, characteristic of many Australian native plants, in particular Eucalyptus species.
surficial: occurring on or near the earth's surface
— Department of Environment and Resource Management
