1.
San Mateo County, California
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San Mateo County is a county located in the U. S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 718,451, the county seat is Redwood City. San Mateo County is included in the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the San Francisco Bay Area and it covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula. San Francisco International Airport is located at the end of the county. The countys built-up areas are mostly suburban with some areas being very urban, San Mateo County was formed in 1856 after San Francisco County, one of the states 18 original counties since Californias statehood in 1850, was split apart. Until 1856, San Franciscos city limits extended west to Divisadero Street and Castro Street, in response to the lawlessness and vigilantism that escalated rapidly between 1855 and 1856, the California government decided to divide the county. A straight line was drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain. The consolidated city-county of San Francisco was formed by an introduced by Horace Hawes. San Mateo County was officially organized on 18 April 1857 under a bill introduced by Senator T. G, San Mateo County then annexed part of northern Santa Cruz County in March 1868, including Pescadero and Pigeon Point. Although the forming bill named Redwood City the county seat, a May 1856 election marked by unblushing frauds, perpetuated on an unorganized and wholly unprotected community by thugs and ballot stuffers from San Francisco named Belmont the county seat. The election results were declared illegal and the county government was moved to Redwood City, Redwood Citys status as county seat was upheld in two succeeding elections in May 1861 and 9 December 1873, defeating San Mateo and Belmont. Another election in May 1874 named San Mateo the county seat, but the supreme court overturned that election on 24 February 1875. San Mateo County bears the Spanish name for Saint Matthew, until about 1850, the name appeared as San Matheo. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 741 square miles. It is the third-smallest county in California by land area, a number of bayside watercourses drain the eastern part of the county including San Bruno Creek and Colma Creek. Streams draining the county include Frenchmans Creek, Pilarcitos Creek, Naples Creek, Arroyo de en Medio. These streams originate along the spur of the Santa Cruz Mountains that run through the county. San Mateo County straddles the San Francisco Peninsula, with the Santa Cruz Mountains running its entire length, the county encompasses a variety of habitats including estuarine, marine, oak woodland, redwood forest, coastal scrub and oak savannah
2.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
3.
Body of water
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A body of water or waterbody is any significant accumulation of water, generally on a planets surface. The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, a body of water does not have to be still or contained, Rivers, streams, canals, and other geographical features where water moves from one place to another are also considered bodies of water. Most are naturally occurring geographical features, but some are artificial, there are types that can be either. For example, most reservoirs are created by engineering dams, similarly, most harbors are naturally occurring bays, but some harbors have been created through construction. Bodies of water that are navigable are known as waterways, some bodies of water collect and move water, such as rivers and streams, and others primarily hold water, such as lakes and oceans. The term body of water can also refer to a reservoir of water held by a plant, note that there are some geographical features involving water that are not bodies of water, for example waterfalls, geysers and rapids. Arm of the sea - also sea arm, used to describe a sea loch, arroyo - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally. Artificial lake or artificial pond - see reservoir or impoundment, barachois - a lagoon separated from the ocean by a sand bar. Bay - an area of water bordered by land on three sides, similar to, but smaller than a gulf, bayou - a slow-moving stream or a marshy lake. Bight - a large and often only slightly receding bay, or a bend in any geographical feature, billabong - see Oxbow lake, a pond or still body of water created when a river changes course and some water becomes trapped. Boil - see Seep Brook - a small stream, canal - an artificial waterway, usually connected to existing lakes, rivers, or oceans. Channel - the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean consisting of a bed. See also stream bed and strait, earth scientists generally use the term to describe a circular or round inlet with a narrow entrance, though colloquially the term is sometimes used to describe any sheltered bay. Basin - a region of land where water from rain or snowmelt drains downhill into another body of water, such as a river, lake, creek - an inlet of the sea, narrower than a cove. Delta - the location where a river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, distributary or distributary channel - a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Draw - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, fjord - a submergent landform which has occurred due to glacial activity. Glacier - a large collection of ice or a river that moves slowly down a mountain. Glacial Pothole - see Kettle Gulf - a part of a lake or ocean that extends so that it is surrounded by land on three sides, similar to, but larger than a bay, headland - an area of water bordered by land on three sides
4.
Tide
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Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and the Sun and the rotation of the Earth. Some shorelines experience a semi-diurnal tide—two nearly equal high and low tides each day, other locations experience a diurnal tide—only one high and low tide each day. A mixed tide—two uneven tides a day, or one high, Tides vary on timescales ranging from hours to years due to a number of factors. To make accurate records, tide gauges at fixed stations measure water level over time, gauges ignore variations caused by waves with periods shorter than minutes. These data are compared to the level usually called mean sea level. Tidal phenomena are not limited to the oceans, but can occur in other systems whenever a gravitational field varies in time. For example, the part of the Earth is affected by tides. Tide changes proceed via the following stages, Sea level rises over several hours, covering the intertidal zone, the water rises to its highest level, reaching high tide. Sea level falls over several hours, revealing the intertidal zone, the water stops falling, reaching low tide. Oscillating currents produced by tides are known as tidal streams, the moment that the tidal current ceases is called slack water or slack tide. The tide then reverses direction and is said to be turning, slack water usually occurs near high water and low water. But there are locations where the moments of slack tide differ significantly from those of high, Tides are commonly semi-diurnal, or diurnal. The two high waters on a day are typically not the same height, these are the higher high water. Similarly, the two low waters each day are the low water and the lower low water. The daily inequality is not consistent and is small when the Moon is over the equator. From the highest level to the lowest, Highest Astronomical Tide – The highest tide which can be predicted to occur, note that meteorological conditions may add extra height to the HAT. Mean High Water Springs – The average of the two high tides on the days of spring tides, mean High Water Neaps – The average of the two high tides on the days of neap tides. Mean Sea Level – This is the sea level
5.
Marsh
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A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species. Marshes can often be found at the edges of lakes and streams and they are often dominated by grasses, rushes or reeds. If woody plants are present they tend to be low-growing shrubs, Marshes provide a habitat for many species of plants, animals, and insects that have adapted to living in flooded conditions. The plants must be able to survive in wet mud with low oxygen levels, many of these plants therefore have aerenchyma, channels within the stem that allow air to move from the leaves into the rooting zone. Marsh plants also tend to have rhizomes for underground storage and reproduction, familiar examples include cattails, sedges, papyrus and sawgrass. Aquatic animals, from fish to salamanders, are able to live with a low amount of oxygen in the water. Some can obtain oxygen from the air instead, while others can live indefinitely in conditions of low oxygen, Marshes provide habitats for many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, waterfowl and aquatic mammals. Marshes have extremely high levels of production, some of the highest in the world. Marshes also improve water quality by acting as a sink to filter pollutants, Marshes are able to absorb water during periods of heavy rainfall and slowly release it into waterways and therefore reduce the magnitude of flooding. The pH in marshes tends to be neutral to alkaline, as opposed to bogs, Marshes differ depending mainly on their location and salinity. Both of these factors influence the range and scope of animal and plant life that can survive. The three main types of marsh are salt marshes, freshwater marshes, and freshwater marshes. These three can be found worldwide and each contains a different set of organisms, saltwater marshes are found around the world in mid to high latitudes, wherever there are sections of protected coastline. They are located close enough to the shoreline that the motion of the tides affects them and they flourish where the rate of sediment buildup is greater than the rate at which the land level is sinking. Salt marshes are dominated by specially adapted rooted vegetation, primarily salt-tolerant grasses, salt marshes are most commonly found in lagoons, estuaries, and on the sheltered side of shingle or sandspit. The currents there carry the fine particles around to the side of the spit. These locations allow the marshes to absorb the nutrients from the water running through them before they reach the oceans. Coastal development and urban sprawl has caused significant loss of these essential habitats, although considered a freshwater marsh, this form of marsh is affected by the ocean tides
6.
San Mateo, California
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San Mateo is a city in San Mateo County, California, in the high-tech enclave of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 2015 population was estimated to be 103,536, San Mateo was incorporated in 1894. Documented by Spanish colonists as part of the Rancho de las Pulgas and the Rancho San Mateo, in 1789 the Spanish missionaries had named a Native American village along Laurel Creek as Los Laureles or the Laurels. At the time of Mexican Independence there were 30 native Californians at San Mateo, an 1835 sketch map of the Rancho refers to the creek as arroyo de los Laureles. In the 21st century, most of the laurels are gone, in 1810 Coyote Point was an early recorded feature of San Mateo. Beginning in the 1850s, some wealthy San Franciscans began building summer or permanent homes in the milder mid-peninsula, while most of this early settlement occurred in adjacent Hillsborough and Burlingame, a number of historically important mansions and buildings were constructed in San Mateo. A. P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy and his mansion, Seven Oaks, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Located at 20 El Cerrito Drive, it has been deteriorating as it has not been preserved or occupied for years, in 1858 Sun Water Station, a stage station of the Butterfield Overland Mail route, was established in San Mateo. It was located 9 miles south of Clarks Station in what is now San Bruno and 9 miles north of the station at Redwood City. The Howard Estate was built in 1859 on the hill accessed by Crystal Springs Road, the Parrott Estate was erected in 1860 in the same area, giving rise to two conflicting names for the hill, Howard Hill and Parrot Hill. After use of the changed traffic patterns, neither historic name was commonly applied to that hill. The Borel Estate was developed near Borel Creek in 1874 and it has been redeveloped since the late 20th century for use as modern offices and shops. The property is managed and owned by Borel Place Associates and the Borel Estate Company, a smaller portion of the property and the mansion, was converted into The Peninsula Hotel in 1908, following Haywards death in 1904. The Hotel burned down in a fire on 25 June 1920. In the early 20th century, Japanese immigrants came to San Mateo to work in the salt ponds, although Japanese-Americans only account for 2. 2% of the population today, they continue to be a major cultural influence and a draw for the rest of the region. The Eugene J. De Sabla Japanese Teahouse and Garden was established in 1894 at 70 De Sabla Road, designed by Makoto Hagiwara and he arranged for Japanese artisans to be brought to the United States primarily for its teahouse construction. The parcel was purchased in 1988 by San Francisco businessman Achille Paladini and wife Joan, the garden features hundreds of varieties of plants and several rare trees. A large koi pond surrounds an island, the property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992
7.
Foster City, California
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Foster City is a planned city located in San Mateo County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 30,567. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley for its local industry, Foster City was founded in the 1960s on engineered landfill in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay, on the east edge of San Mateo. The city was named after T, jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in its initial design. His successor firm, Foster Enterprises, run by his descendants, is active in real estate affairs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Forbes ranked Foster City #10 on their 2009 list of Americas Top 25 Towns to Live Well, Money has also recognized Foster City multiple times as one of the Best Places to Live. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 19.8 square miles. The total area is 81. 07% water, the 2010 United States Census reported that Foster City had a population of 30,567. The population density was 8,138.2 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Foster City was 13,912 White,576 African American,29 Native American,13,746 Asian,189 Pacific Islander,575 from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,995 persons. The Census reported that 30,458 people lived in households,52 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, There were 531 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 75 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,807 households were made up of individuals and 860 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.53. There were 8,406 families, the family size was 3.04. The median age was 39.3 years, for every 100 females there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males. There were 12,458 housing units at a density of 3,316.8 per square mile, of which 6,958 were owner-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0. 8%, the vacancy rate was 3. 5%. 18,423 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 12,035 people lived in housing units
8.
River delta
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A river delta is a landform that forms from deposition of sediment carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or standing water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, River deltas are ecologically important as they provide coastline defense, are home to many species, and can impact drinking water supply. The tidal currents also cannot be too strong, as sediment would wash out into the body faster than the river deposits it. Of course, the river must carry enough sediment to layer into deltas over time, the rivers velocity decreases rapidly, causing it to deposit the majority, if not all, of its load. This alluvium builds up to form the river delta, when the flow enters the standing water, it is no longer confined to its channel and expands in width. This flow expansion results in a decrease in the flow velocity, as a result, sediment drops out of the flow and deposits. Over time, this single channel builds a deltaic lobe, pushing its mouth into the standing water, as the deltaic lobe advances, the gradient of the river channel becomes lower because the river channel is longer but has the same change in elevation. As the slope of the channel decreases, it becomes unstable for two reasons. First, gravity makes the flow in the most direct course down slope. If the river breaches its natural levees, it out onto a new course with a shorter route to the ocean. Second, as its slope gets lower, the amount of stress on the bed decreases, which results in deposition of sediment within the channel. This makes it easier for the river to breach its levees, often when the channel does this, some of its flow remains in the abandoned channel. When these channel-switching events occur, a mature delta develops a distributary network, another way these distributary networks form is from deposition of mouth bars. When this mid-channel bar is deposited at the mouth of a river and this results in additional deposition on the upstream end of the mouth-bar, which splits the river into two distributary channels. A good example of the result of this process is the Wax Lake Delta, in both of these cases, depositional processes force redistribution of deposition from areas of high deposition to areas of low deposition. This results in the smoothing of the shape of the delta as the channels move across its surface. Because the sediment is laid down in fashion, the shape of these deltas approximates a fan. The more often the flow changes course, the shape develops as closer to an ideal fan, the Mississippi and Ural River deltas, with their birds-feet, are examples of rivers that do not avulse often enough to form a symmetrical fan shape
9.
Wetland
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A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, either permanently or seasonally, such that it takes on the characteristics of a distinct ecosystem. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from other forms or water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants. Wetlands play a number of roles in the environment, principally water purification, flood control, carbon sink, Wetlands are also considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal life. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent except Antarctica, the largest including the Amazon River basin, the West Siberian Plain, the water found in wetlands can be freshwater, brackish, or saltwater. The main wetland types include swamps, marshes, bogs, and fens, and sub-types include mangrove, carr, pocosin, the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment determined that environmental degradation is more prominent within wetland systems than any other ecosystem on Earth. International conservation efforts are being used in conjunction with the development of rapid assessment tools to people about wetland issues. Constructed wetlands can be used to treat municipal and industrial wastewater as well as stormwater runoff and they may also play a role in water-sensitive urban design. A patch of land that develops pools of water after a storm would not be considered a wetland. Wetlands have unique characteristics, they are distinguished from other water bodies or landforms based on their water level. Specifically, wetlands are characterized as having a table that stands at or near the land surface for a long enough period each year to support aquatic plants. A more concise definition is a community composed of hydric soil, Wetlands have also been described as ecotones, providing a transition between dry land and water bodies. In environmental decision-making, there are subsets of definitions that are agreed upon to make regulatory and policy decisions. A wetland is an ecosystem that arises when inundation by water produces soils dominated by anaerobic processes, There are four main kinds of wetlands – marsh, swamp, bog and fen. Some experts also recognize wet meadows and aquatic ecosystems as additional wetland types, the largest wetlands in the world include the swamp forests of the Amazon and the peatlands of Siberia. Under the Ramsar international wetland conservation treaty, wetlands are defined as follows, Article 2.1, may incorporate riparian and coastal zones adjacent to the wetlands, and islands or bodies of marine water deeper than six metres at low tide lying within the wetlands. Although the general definition given above applies around the world, each county, Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas. This definition has been used in the enforcement of the Clean Water Act, some US states, such as Massachusetts and New York, have separate definitions that may differ from the federal governments. It is not uncommon for a wetland to be dry for long portions of the growing season, the most important factor producing wetlands is flooding
10.
Restoration ecology
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Restoration ecology emerged as a separate field in ecology in the 1980s. Restoration ecology is commonly used for the academic study of the process. E. O. Wilson, a biologist states that, Here is the means to end the great extinction spasm, the next century will, I believe, be the era of restoration in ecology. Restoration ecology is the study of ecological restoration. Estimates of the current extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times more than the normal rate, for many people biological diversity, has an intrinsic value that humans have a responsibility towards other living things, and an obligation to future generations. On a more level, natural ecosystems provide human society with food, fuel. Such processes have been estimated to be trillions of dollars annually. Habitat loss is the cause of both species extinctions and ecosystem service decline. The two ways to reverse trend of habitat loss are conservation of currently viable habitat and restoration of degraded habitats. The fundamental difference between restoration and other conservation efforts is analogous to the difference between disease prevention and treatment, conservation attempts to maintain and protect existing habitat and biodiversity, whereas restoration attempts to reverse existing environmental degradation and population declines. Targeted human intervention is used to promote habitat, biodiversity recovery, the possibility of restoration, however, does not provide an excuse for converting extremely valuable pristine habitat into other uses, as in medicine, it better to prevent than to treat. Though restoration ecologists and other conservation biologists generally agree that habitat is the most important locus of biodiversity protection, conservation biology as an academic discipline is rooted in population biology. Because of that, it is organized at the genetic level. Restoration ecology is organized at the community level, looking at specific ecosystems, conservation biologys focus on rare or endangered species limit the number of manipulative studies that can be performed. As a consequence, conservation studies tend to be descriptive, comparative, however, the highly manipulative nature of restoration ecology allows the researcher to test the hypotheses vigorously. Restorative activity often reflects an experimental test of what limits populations, Restoration ecology draws on a wide range of ecological concepts. Disturbance is a change of environmental conditions, which interferes with the functioning of a biological system, disturbance, at a variety of spatial and temporal scales, is a natural component of many communities. Humans have had limited natural impacts on ecosystems for as long as humans have existed, however, understanding and minimizing the differences between modern anthropogenic and natural disturbances is crucial to restoration ecology
11.
Habitat
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A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. The term typically refers to the zone in which the organism lives and it is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds a species population. Every organism has certain habitat needs for the conditions in which it will thrive, habitat types include polar, temperate, subtropical and tropical. The terrestrial vegetation type may be forest, steppe, grassland, the word habitat has been in use since about 1755 and derives from the Latin third-person singular present indicative of habitāre, to inhabit, from habēre, to have or to hold. Habitat can be defined as the environment of an organism. It is similar in meaning to a biotope, an area of environmental conditions associated with a particular community of plants. Generally speaking, animal communities are reliant on specific types of plant communities, some plants and animals are generalists, and their habitat requirements are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica and its larvae feed on a wide range of Brassicas and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiverse habitats, in the absence of disturbance, a climax vegetation cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as pioneering species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly coastal habitats can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm, another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an invasive introduced species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat. Terrestrial habitat types include forests, grasslands, wetlands and deserts, within these broad biomes are more specific habitats with varying climate types, temperature regimes, soils, altitudes and vegetation types. Many of these habitats grade into each other and each one has its own communities of plants. A habitat may suit a particular species well, but its presence or absence at any particular location depends to some extent on chance, on its dispersal abilities, freshwater habitats include rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, marshes and bogs. Although some organisms are found across most of these habitats, the majority have more specific requirements, similarly, aquatic plants can be floating, semi-submerged, submerged or grow in permanently or temporarily saturated soils besides bodies of water. Marine habitats include brackish water, estuaries, bays, the sea, the intertidal zone. Further variations include rock pools, sand banks, mudflats, brackish lagoons, sandy and pebbly beaches, the benthic zone or seabed provides a home for both static organisms, anchored to the substrate, and for a large range of organisms crawling on or burrowing into the surface. A desert is not the kind of habitat that favours the presence of amphibians, with their requirement for water to keep their skins moist, nevertheless, some frogs live in deserts, creating moist habitats underground and hibernating while conditions are adverse
12.
Dredging
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Dredging is an excavation activity usually carried out underwater, in shallow seas or freshwater areas with the purpose of gathering up bottom sediments and disposing of them at a different location. This technique is used to keep waterways navigable. It is also used as a way to replenish sand on some public beaches, fishing dredges are used as a technique for catching certain species of edible clams and crabs. Capital, dredging carried out to create a new harbor, berth or waterway, preparatory, work and excavation for future bridges, piers or docks/wharves, often connected with foundation work. This is often carried out with a trailing suction hopper dredge, most dredging is for this purpose, and it may also be done to maintain the holding capacity of reservoirs or lakes. Land reclamation, dredging to mine sand, clay or rock from the seabed and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. The material may also be used for flood or erosion control, beach nourishment, mining sand offshore and placing on a beach to replace sand eroded by storms or wave action. This is done to enhance the recreational and protective function of the beaches and this is typically performed by a cutter-suction dredge or trailing suction hopper dredge. Harvesting materials, dredging sediment for elements like gold, diamonds or other valuable trace substances, seabed mining, a possible future use, recovering natural metal ore nodules from the seas abyssal plains. Construction materials, dredging sand and gravels from offshore licensed areas for use in construction industry, very specialist industry focused in NW Europe using specialized trailing suction hopper dredgers self discharging dry cargo ashore. Anti-eutrophication, Dredging is an option for the remediation of eutrophied water bodies. Contaminant remediation, to areas affected by chemical spills, storm water surges. Disposal becomes a large factor in these operations. Removing trash and debris, often done in combination with maintenance dredging, flood prevention, this can help to increase channel depth and therefore increase a channels capacity for carrying water. This tradition has now more or less obsolete and the tools used to do this have also changed significantly. Oyster dredging or harvesting, in Louisiana and other states with salt water estuaries that can sustain bottom oyster beds. A heavy metal rectangular scoop device is towed astern of a boat with a chain bridle attached to a cable. The device is periodically hauled aboard and the oysters in it are sorted and bagged for shipment to a processing facility
13.
Sewage treatment
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Sewage treatment is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater, primarily from household sewage. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove these contaminants, a by-product of sewage treatment is usually a semi-solid waste or slurry, called sewage sludge, that has to undergo further treatment before being suitable for disposal or land application. Sewage treatment may also be referred to as treatment, although the latter is a broader term which can also be applied to purely industrial wastewater. If the sewer system is a combined sewer then it will also carry urban runoff to the treatment plant. The term sewage treatment plant is often replaced with the term wastewater treatment plant. Sewage can be treated close to where the sewage is created, alternatively, sewage can be collected and transported by a network of pipes and pump stations to a municipal treatment plant. This is called a centralized system, sewage is generated by residential, institutional, commercial and industrial establishments. It includes household waste liquid from toilets, baths, showers, kitchens, in many areas, sewage also includes liquid waste from industry and commerce. Sewage may include stormwater runoff or urban runoff, sewerage systems capable of handling storm water are known as combined sewer systems. This design was common when urban sewerage systems were first developed, in the late 19th, combined sewers require much larger and more expensive treatment facilities than sanitary sewers. Heavy volumes of storm runoff may overwhelm the sewage treatment system, sanitary sewers are typically much smaller than combined sewers, and they are not designed to transport stormwater. Backups of raw sewage can occur if excessive infiltration/inflow is allowed into a sewer system. As rainfall travels over roofs and the ground, it may pick up various contaminants including soil particles and other sediment, heavy metals, organic compounds, animal waste, some jurisdictions require stormwater to receive some level of treatment before being discharged directly into waterways. Examples of treatment processes used for stormwater include retention basins, wetlands, buried vaults with various kinds of media filters and this process is called industrial wastewater treatment. The same does not apply to many developing countries where industrial effluent is more likely to enter the sewer if it exists, or even the water body. Industrial wastewater may contain pollutants which cannot be removed by conventional sewage treatment, also, variable flow of industrial waste associated with production cycles may upset the population dynamics of biological treatment units, such as the activated sludge process. Sewage collection and treatment is subject to local, state and federal regulations. Sewage treatment generally involves three stages, called primary, secondary and tertiary treatment, Primary treatment consists of temporarily holding the sewage in a quiescent basin where heavy solids can settle to the bottom while oil, grease and lighter solids float to the surface
14.
Brackish water
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Brackish water or briny water is water that has more salinity than fresh water, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing of seawater with fresh water, as in estuaries, the word comes from the Middle Dutch root brak. Brackish water is also the primary product of the salinity gradient power process. Because brackish water is hostile to the growth of most terrestrial plant species, without appropriate management it is damaging to the environment. Technically, brackish water contains between 0.5 and 30 grams of salt per litre—more often expressed as 0.5 to 30 parts per thousand, thus, brackish covers a range of salinity regimes and is not considered a precisely defined condition. It is characteristic of many brackish surface waters that their salinity can vary considerably over space and/or time, brackish water condition commonly occurs when fresh water meets seawater. In fact, the most extensive brackish water habitats worldwide are estuaries, the River Thames flowing through London is a classic river estuary. A similar pattern of replacement can be observed with the aquatic plants and this type of ecological succession from a freshwater to marine ecosystem is typical of river estuaries. Salmon are anadromous, meaning live in the sea but ascend rivers to spawn, eels are catadromous, living in rivers and streams. Besides the species migrate through estuaries, there are many other fish that use them as nursery grounds for spawning or as places young fish can feed. Herring and plaice are two commercially important species that use the Thames Estuary for this purpose, estuaries are also commonly used as fishing grounds, and as places for fish farming or ranching. Another important brackish water habitat is the swamp or mangal. Many, though not all, mangrove swamps fringe estuaries and lagoons where the salinity changes with each tide, like estuaries, mangrove swamps are extremely important breeding grounds for many fish, with species such as snappers, halfbeaks, and tarpon spawning or maturing among them. Mangroves represent important nesting site for numerous birds groups such as herons, storks, spoonbills, ibises, kingfishers, the Sundarbans and Bhitarkanika Mangroves are two of the large mangrove forests in the world, both on the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Some seas and lakes are brackish, the Baltic Sea is a brackish sea adjoining the North Sea. Because the salt water coming in from the sea is denser than freshwater, limited mixing occurs because of the lack of tides and storms, with the result that the fish fauna at the surface is freshwater in composition while that lower down is more marine. Cod are an example of a species found in deep water in the Baltic. The Caspian Sea is the worlds largest lake and contains brackish water with a salinity about one-third that of normal seawater, the Caspian is famous for its peculiar animal fauna, including one of the few non-marine seals and the great sturgeons, a major source of caviar
15.
Flora
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Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animal life is fauna, Flora, fauna and other forms of life such as fungi are collectively referred to as biota. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the gut flora or skin flora. The word flora comes from the Latin name of Flora, the goddess of plants, flowers, the distinction between vegetation and flora was first made by Jules Thurmann. Prior to this, the two terms were used indiscriminately, plants are grouped into floras based on region, period, special environment, or climate. Regions can be geographically distinct habitats like mountain vs. flatland, floras can mean plant life of a historic era as in fossil flora. Lastly, floras may be subdivided by special environments, Native flora, the native and indigenous flora of an area. The plants that are grown by humans. Traditionally this classification was applied to plants regarded as undesirable, many native plants previously considered weeds have been shown to be beneficial or even necessary to various ecosystems. The flora of an area or time period can be documented in a publication also known as a flora. Floras may require specialist botanical knowledge to use with any effectiveness, traditionally they are books, but some are now published on CD-ROM or websites. It is said that the Flora Sinensis by the Polish Jesuit Michał Boym was the first book that used the name Flora in this meaning, however, despite its title it covered not only plants, but also some animals of the region. A published flora often contains diagnostic keys, often these are dichotomous keys, which require the user to repeatedly examine a plant, and decide which one of two alternatives given best applies to the plant
16.
Spartina
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Spartina, commonly known as cordgrass or cord-grass, is a genus of plants in the grass family, frequently found in coastal salt marshes. The genus name is derived from σπαρτίνη, the Greek word for a made from Spanish broom. The highest species diversity is on the east coasts of North and South America and they form large, often dense colonies, particularly on coastal salt marshes, and grow quickly. The species vary in size from 0. 3–2 m tall, many of the species will produce hybrids if they come into contact. – smooth cordgrass - Atlantic coasts of North + South America, – common cordgrass - Great Britain, introduced scattered other places Spartina arundinacea Carmich - Tristan da Cunha, Amsterdam Island in Indian Ocean Spartina bakeri Merr. – sand cordgrass - southeastern USA Spartina × caespitosa A. A. Eaton – short cordgrass - eastern USA + Canada Spartina ciliata Brongn, - Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay Spartina cynosuroides Roth – big cordgrass - eastern USA, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua, Bahamas Spartina densiflora Brongn. – denseflower cordgrass - Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, – California cordgrass - California, Baja California, Baja California Sur Spartina gracilis Trin. – alkali cordgrass - western Canada, western + central USA, Chihuahua, Jalisco, – Gulf cordgrass - Atlantic coast of North America from Florida to Argentina, incl Caribbean + Gulf of Mexico Spartina × townsendii H. Groves & J. Various members of the genus have spread outside of their native boundaries, big cordgrass is used in the construction of bulls eye targets for sports archery. A properly constructed Spartina target can stop an arrow safely without damage to the arrowhead as it lodges in the target, Spartina species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Aarons skipper and engrailed. Three of the Spartina species have become invasive plants in some countries, sand Bay - an area in the UK where Spartina grass planted to support a river bank has spread
17.
Wildlife
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Wildlife traditionally refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all plants, fungi, and other organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems, humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. Some animals, however, have adapted to suburban environments and this includes such animals as domesticated cats, dogs, mice, and gerbils. The global wildlife population has decreased by 52 percent between 1970 and 2014, according to a report by the World Wildlife Fund, anthropologists believe that the Stone Age people and hunter-gatherers relied on wildlife, both plants and animals, for their food. In fact, some species may have been hunted to extinction by human hunters. Today, hunting, fishing, and gathering wildlife is still a significant food source in parts of the world. In other areas, hunting and non-commercial fishing are seen as a sport or recreation. Meat sourced from wildlife that is not traditionally regarded as game is known as bush meat, in November 2008, almost 900 plucked and oven-ready owls and other protected wildlife species were confiscated by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks in Malaysia, according to TRAFFIC. The animals were believed to be bound for China, to be sold in wild meat restaurants, most are listed in CITES which prohibits or restricts such trade.60. Many Amazon species, including peccaries, agoutis, turtles, turtle eggs, anacondas, armadillos, others in these informal markets, such as monkeys and parrots, are destined for the pet trade, often smuggled into the United States. Still other Amazon species are popular ingredients in traditional medicines sold in local markets, the medicinal value of animal parts is based largely on superstition. Many animal species have spiritual significance in different cultures around the world, for example, eagles, hawks and their feathers have great cultural and spiritual value to Native Americans as religious objects. In Hinduism the cow is regarded sacred, muslims conduct sacrifices on Eid-ul-Adha to commemorate the sacrificial spirit of Ibrahim in love of God. Camels, sheep, goats, and cows may be offered as sacrifice during the three days of Eid, many nations have established their tourism sector around their natural wildlife. South Africa has, for example, many opportunities for tourists to see the wildlife in its national parks. In South India the Periar Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park and Mudamalai Wildlife Sanctuary are situated around, India is home to many national parks and wildlife sanctuaries showing the diversity of its wildlife, much of its unique fauna, and excels in the range. This subsection focuses on forms of wildlife destruction. Exploitation of wild populations has been a characteristic of man since our exodus from Africa 130,000 –70,000 years ago
18.
Endangered species
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An endangered species is a species which has been categorized as likely to become extinct. In 2012, the IUCN Red List featured 3079 animal and 2655 plant species as endangered worldwide, the figures for 1998 were, respectively,1102 and 1197. Many nations have laws that protect conservation-reliant species, for example, population numbers, trends and species conservation status can be found in the lists of organisms by population. The conservation status of a species indicates the likelihood that it will become extinct, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the best-known worldwide conservation status listing and ranking system. Over 40% of the species are estimated to be at risk of extinction. Internationally,199 countries have signed an accord to create Biodiversity Action Plans that will protect endangered, in the United States, such plans are usually called Species Recovery Plans. Those species of Near Threatened and Least Concern status have been assessed and found to have relatively robust and healthy populations, though these may be in decline. The IUCN categories, with examples of animals classified by them, include, Extinct Extinct in the wild Captive individuals survive, critically endangered Faces an extremely high risk of extinction in the immediate future. Endangered Faces a high risk of extinction in the near future, vulnerable Faces a high risk of endangerment in the medium term. Near-threatened May be considered threatened in the near future, Least concern No immediate threat to species survival. A population size reduction of ≥ 50%, projected or suspected to be met within the next 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on any of to under A1. E) Quantitative analysis showing the probability of extinction in the wild is at least 20% within 20 years or five generations, there is data from the United States that shows a correlation between human populations and threatened and endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act in the United States, species may be listed as endangered or threatened, the Salt Creek tiger beetle is an example of an endangered subspecies protected under the ESA. Some endangered species laws are controversial, also lobbying from hunters and various industries like the petroleum industry, construction industry, and logging, has been an obstacle in establishing endangered species laws. The Bush administration lifted a policy that required federal officials to consult an expert before taking actions that could damage endangered species. Under the Obama administration, this policy has been reinstated, being listed as an endangered species can have negative effect since it could make a species more desirable for collectors and poachers. This effect is potentially reducible, such as in China where commercially farmed turtles may be reducing some of the pressure to poach endangered species. Another problem with the species is its effect of inciting the use of the shoot, shovel
19.
Ridgway's rail
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Ridgways rail is a near-threatened species of bird. It is found principally in Californias San Francisco Bay to southern Baja California, a member of the rail family, Rallidae, it is a chicken-sized bird that rarely flies. This species is related to the clapper rail, and until recently was considered a subspecies. It has a long, downward curving bill and is brown with a pale chestnut breast. The population levels of Ridgways rail are precariously low due to destruction of its coastal and estuarine marshland habitat by prior land development and it has year-long, circadian activity and is most vocal nocturnally and crepuscularly. Ridgways rail forages at the end of, along the ecotone between mudflat and higher vegetated zones, and in tidal sloughs. Mussels, clams, arthropods, snails, worms and small fish are its preferred foods, the bird will only forage on mudflats or very shallow water where there is taller plant material nearby to provide protection at high tide. At such high tides it may also prey upon mice, and has known to scavenge dead fish. One of the largest population of Ridgways rails is in San Francisco Bay, for cover, Ridgways rail seeks out emergent wetland dominated by pickleweed and cordgrass, or brackish emergent wetland with those two plants plus bulrush. It is not clear whether it requires any source of fresh water, although not migratory in coastal wetlands, this species disperses juveniles into freshwater wetlands in late August through October. Ridgways rail breeds in the San Francisco Bay from mid-March through August, during this breeding season the bird density was approximately 0.1 to 0.6 individuals per acre, outside of breeding season densities decline to 0.04 to 0.40 individuals per acre. The twig nest is placed low sometimes among plant roots, eggs are produced in clutches of four to fourteen, with an average yield of 7.6. The incubation period is 18 to 29 days, and the success is 38%. Rallus o. yumanensis, Yuma rail, southeastern California and southern Arizona, to northwestern Mexico Rallus o. beldingi, Beldings rail, southern Baja California
20.
Floodgate
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Floodgates, also called stop gates, are adjustable gates used to control water flow in flood barriers, reservoir, river, stream, or levee systems. They may be designed to set spillway crest heights in dams, to adjust flow rates in sluices and canals, since most of these devices operate by controlling the water surface elevation being stored or routed, they are also known as crest gates. Valves used in applications have a variety of design requirements and are usually located at the base of dams. Often, the most important requirement is energy dissipation, since water is very heavy, it exits the base of a dam with the enormous force of water pushing from above. Unless this energy is dissipated, the flow can erode nearby rock and soil, other design requirements include taking into account pressure head operation, the flow rate, whether the valve operates above or below water, and the regulation of precision and cost. Fixed cone valves are designed to dissipate the energy from a water flow during reservoir discharge and they are a round pipe section with an adjustable sleeve gate and cone at the discharge end. Flow is varied by moving the sleeve away or towards its cone seat, the design allows high pressure water from the base of a dam to be released without causing erosion to the surrounding environment. Fixed cone valves are able to handle heads up to 300 m, hollow jet valves are a type of needle valve used for floodgate discharge. A cone and seat are inside a pipe, water flows through an annular gap between the pipe and cone when it is moved downstream, away from the seat. Ribs support the assembly and supply air for water jet stabilization. Ring jet valves are similar to fixed cone valves, but have a collar that discharges water in a narrow stream. They are suitable for heads up to 50 m, jet flow gate, similar to a gate valve but with a conical restriction prior to the gate leaf that focuses the water into a jet. They were developed in the 1940s by the United States Bureau of Reclamation to allow control of discharge flow without the cavitation seen in regular gate valves. Jet flow gates are able to handle heads up to 150 m, tidal barrage Canal lock Thames Barrier Delta Works Oosterscheldekering US Army Corps of Engineers. Engineering manual 1110-2-2607, Planning and Design of Navigation Dams, Chapter 5, deltaWorks. Org – project in the Netherlands on floodgates
21.
San Francisco Bay
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San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the U. S. state of California. It is surrounded by a region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, dominated by the large cities San Francisco, Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from approximately 40 percent of California and it then connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. However, this group of interconnected bays is often called the San Francisco Bay. The bay was designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance on February 2,2013, the bay covers somewhere between 400 and 1,600 square miles, depending on which sub-bays, estuaries, wetlands, and so on are included in the measurement. The main part of the bay measures 3 to 12 miles wide east-to-west and it is the largest Pacific estuary in the Americas. Later, wetlands and inlets were filled in, reducing the Bays size since the mid-19th century by as much as one third. Recently, large areas of wetlands have been restored, further confusing the issue of the Bays size, despite its value as a waterway and harbor, many thousands of acres of marshy wetlands at the edges of the bay were, for many years, considered wasted space. As a result, soil excavated for building projects or dredged from channels was often dumped onto the wetlands, from the mid-19th century through the late 20th century, more than a third of the original bay was filled and often built on. The idea was, and remains, controversial, there are five large islands in San Francisco Bay. Alameda, the largest island, was created when a shipping lane was cut in 1901 and it is now predominantly a bedroom community. Angel Island was known as Ellis Island West because it served as the point for immigrants from East Asia. It is now a park accessible by ferry. Mountainous Yerba Buena Island is pierced by a tunnel linking the east and west spans of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, attached to the north is the artificial and flat Treasure Island, site of the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. From the Second World War until the 1990s, both served as military bases and are now being redeveloped. Isolated in the center of the Bay is Alcatraz, the site of the federal penitentiary. The federal prison on Alcatraz Island no longer functions, but the complex is a popular tourist site, despite its name, Mare Island in the northern part of the bay is a peninsula rather than an island. During the last ice age, the now filled by the bay was a large linear valley with small hills
22.
Overpopulation (biology)
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Overpopulation occurs when a species population exceeds the carrying capacity of its ecological niche. It can result from an increase in births, a decline in the mortality rate, overpopulation can also be very devastating to a population once the death rates increase and the population growth declines and comes back to around the carrying capacity. An example is the human population, in the wilderness, the problem of overpopulation is often solved by a growth in the population of predators. Predators tend to look for signs of weakness in their prey and this has the effect of controlling the prey population and ensuring its evolution in favor of genetic characteristics that render it less vulnerable to predation. In the absence of predators, species are bound by the resources they can find in their environment, an abundant supply of resources can produce a population boom that ends up with more individuals than the environment can support. In this case, starvation, thirst and sometimes violent competition for scarce resources may affect a sharp reduction in population in a short lapse. Lemmings, as well as species of rodents, are known to have such cycles of rapid population growth. Some species seem to have a measure of self-control, by which individuals refrain from mating when they find themselves in a crowded environment and this voluntary abstinence may be induced by stress or by pheromones. In an ideal situation, when animal populations grow, so do the number of predators feed on that particular animal. Animals that have birth defects or weak genes are unable to compete for food with stronger, healthier animals, in reality, an animal that is not native to an environment may have advantages over the native ones, such being unsuitable for the local predators. If left uncontrolled, such an animal can quickly overpopulate and ultimately destroy its environment, in Australia, when rabbits were introduced by European immigrants, they bred out of control and ate the farm crops and food that both native and farm animals needed. Farmers hunted the rabbits, and also brought cats into guard against rabbits and rats and these introduced cats created another problem, becoming predators of local species. Examples of locust overpopulation caused by natural cyclic variations include, the 2004 Locust Outbreak in West, the rate of population growth has been declining since the 1980s. As of 2011, the United Nations Population Division projected that global growth will nearly halt by 2050. However, some contend that this projection is off. Most contemporary estimates for the capacity of the Earth under existing conditions are between 4 billion and 16 billion. In 2013 the human population was 7 billion, by 2025 the world population is expected to grow an additional 1 billion, depending on which estimate of overpopulation is used, human overpopulation may or may not have already occurred. However, some believe that waste and over-consumption, especially by wealthy nations, is putting more strain on the environment than overpopulation, animal population control Culling Cascade effect Overexploitation
23.
Midge
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Midges are a group of insects that include many kinds of small flies. They are found on every land area outside permanently arid deserts. The term midge does not define any particular group. Some midges, such as many Phlebotominae and Simuliidae, are vectors of various diseases, many others play useful roles as prey items for insectivores, such as various frogs and swallows. Others are important as detritivores, participating in various nutrient cycles, the habits of midges vary greatly from species to species, though within any particular family midges commonly have similar ecological roles. One type of midge ceratopogonid midges is a pollinator of Theobroma cacao because of its unique morphological and behavioral characteristics. Having natural pollinators has beneficial effects in both agricultural and biological production because it increases Theobroma cacao crop yield and also density of predators of the midges. Some of them spread the livestock diseases blue tongue and African horse sickness – other species though, are at least partly nectar feeders, most other midge families are not bloodsuckers, but it is not possible to generalise rigidly because of the vagueness of the term midge. There is for no objective basis for excluding the Psychodidae from the list. Most midges, apart from the gall midges, are aquatic during the larval stage, some Cecidomyiidae are significant plant pests. The larvae of some Chironomidae contain haemoglobin and are referred to as bloodworms. Non-biting midge flies are a nuisance around man-made bodies of water
24.
Shore
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A shore or a shoreline is the fringe of land at the edge of a large body of water, such as an ocean, sea, or lake. Shores are influenced by the topography of the landscape, as well as by water induced erosion. The geological composition of rock and soil dictates the type of shore which is created, Riviera is an Italian word for shoreline, ultimately derived from Latin ripa. It came to be applied as a name to the coast of the Ligurian Sea, in the form riviera ligure. Historically, the Ligurian Riviera extended from Capo Corvo south of Genoa, north and west into what is now French territory past Monoco, now it is divided into the Italian Riviera and the French Riviera. Although the French use the term Riviera to refer to the Italian Riviera, as a result of the fame of the Ligurian rivieras, the term came into English to refer to any shoreline, especially one that is sunny, topographically diverse and popular with tourists. Such places using the term include the Australian Riviera in Queensland, offshore or Intertidal zone Ballantine Scale Coastal path Shorezone Anders, F. J. and Byrnes, M. R. Accuracy of shoreline change rates as determined from maps and aerial photographs Shore and Beach, v.59, processes influencing the transport and fate of contaminated sediments in the coastal ocean—Boston Harbor and Massachusetts Bay, U. S. Geological Survey Circular 1302, pp. 1–89. Equilibrium beach profiles—characteristics and applications Journal of Coastal Research, v.7, the Budget of Littoral Sediments—Concepts and Applications Shore and Beach, v.64, pp. 18–26. Meade, R. H. Sources, sinks and storage of river sediments in the Atlantic drainage of the United States Journal of Geology, v.90, an Assessment of the Nations Shorelines, USA Shore and Beach v.71, no. Stockdon, H. F. Sallenger, A. H. List, J. H. and Holman, estimation of shoreline position and change using airborne topographic lidar data Journal of Coastal Research, v.18, no. The use of models to predict beach behavior for U. S. coastal engineering—A critical review Journal of Coastal Research, v.16. Media related to Shores at Wikimedia Commons shore, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
25.
Coyote Point Park
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Coyote Point Park is a 670-acre park in San Mateo County, California, United States. Located on San Francisco Bay, it is south of San Francisco International Airport on the border of Burlingame, Coyote Point was originally an island in San Francisco Bay with a marsh connecting it to the mainland. Coyote Point was part of the Presidio and Mission lands until it passed to Mexico, the Governor of Mexico then granted the land to Coyetano Arenas, to which the name can probably be traced. The Arenas family sold it to the firm of Mellus and Howard, the land remained in the Howard family until it was sold to the county and the federal government in 1942. In the late 19th century, the Howard family built a pier at Coyote Point for lumber loading and they also reclaimed the marsh between the island and the mainland to create dairy pasture. They built a bathhouse and pool on the beach in 1880, in 1922, a group of promoters created the Pacific City Amusement Park on about 90 acres of land along the beach leased from the Howard family. The park included a boardwalk, childrens playground, scenic railway, merry-go-round, Ferris wheel, dancing pavilion and several food concessions. Although it was reputed to have had one million visitors in the first season, a fire during the second season destroyed about one quarter of the development, the reasons given for the closure were strong afternoon winds and sewage contamination in the bay. In 1942, the government purchased 10 acres of land on Coyote Point for one of three Merchant Marine Cadet Basic schools, the Pacific Coast Cadet Corps. With the outbreak of war, enrollment exceeded the capacity of facilities on Treasure Island, plans were swiftly drawn up by Cdr. Ralph M. Sheaf, and construction began on the facilities at Coyote Point on June 25,1942, the Basic School opened on August 15,1942 and was officially dedicated on August 21,1943 with a capacity of 528 cadets. In 1946, the buildings were purchased by the College of San Mateo, the park contains many trails for walking and bicycling, and includes sections of the San Francisco Bay Trail. The Main Concourse Science Exhibits offer a variety of science exhibits that allow children. The Aviary is a 4, 000-square-foot walk-through facility that houses over a dozen non-releasable, the Invertebrate Corner houses a live beehive and a variety of native invertebrates including a California blond tarantula, black widow spider, dermestid beetles and others. The Gardens cover about 1.3 acres and consist of a variety of plants and they include a hummingbird garden, butterfly habitat, and the Natures Marketplace Garden which features native plants used by Native Californians. Official website Official site of CuriOdyssey
26.
Bay mud
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Bay mud manifests low shear strength, high compressibility and low permeability, making it hazardous to build upon in seismically active regions like the San Francisco Bay Area. Typical bulk density of bay mud is approximately 1.3 grams per cubic centimetre, Bay mud has its own official geological abbreviation. The designation for Quaternary older bay mud is Qobm and the acronym for Quaternary younger bay mud is Qybm, an alluvial layer is often found overlying the older bay mud. In relation to shipping channels, it is necessary to dredge bay bottoms. It is not uncommon to dredge the same channel repeatedly since further settling sediments are prone to redeposit on an open valley floor. Bay muds originate from two generalized sources, first alluvial deposits of clays, silts and sand occur from streams tributary to a given bay. The extent of these unconsolidated interglacial deposits typically ranges throughout a given bay to the extent of the historical perimeter marshlands, second, in periods of high glaciation, deposits of silts, sands and organic plus inorganic detritus may form a separate distinct layer. Thus bay muds are important time records of activity and streamflow throughout the Quaternary period. Some depositional formation is quite recent, such as in the case of Florida Bay, where much of the bay mud has accumulated since 2000 BC, and consists of primarily decayed organic material. In the case of the Bristol Channel in the United Kingdom bay, mud formation has been occurring at least since the Eemian Stage, in other cases such as with San Francisco Bay, deposition has been interrupted by sea-level changes, and strata of vastly different vintages are found. In the San Francisco Bay Area, these are called Young bay mud, human activities can also affect deposition, close to half of the Young Bay Mud in San Francisco Bay was placed in the period 1855–1865, as a result of placer mining in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Construction on bay mud sites is difficult because of the low strength. A number of buildings have been constructed over bay muds, typically employing special mitigation designs to withstand seismic risks. Complicating design issues, fill is sometimes deposited on the surface level. For example, the Dakin Building in Brisbane, California was designed in 1985 to sit on piles 150 feet deep, anchoring to the Franciscan formation, below the bay muds and through an upper fill layer. Furthermore, the entrance ramp has been set on a giant hinge to allow the surrounding land to settle, while the building absolute height remains constant. The Crowne Plaza high-rise hotel in Burlingame, California was also designed to sit over bay muds, as was the Westin Hotel in Millbrae, California, indeed, Bostons entire Back Bay district is named for the tidal bay that it now covers. Logan International Airport and the San Francisco International Airport are also constructed over bay mud, when the mud layer is exposed at the tidal fringe, mudflats result affording a unique ecotone that affords numerous shorebird species a safe feeding and resting habitat
27.
California Department of Transportation
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The California Department of Transportation is an executive department within the U. S. state of California. Caltrans manages the highway system and is actively involved with public transportation systems throughout the state. It supports Amtrak California and the Capitol Corridor, the department is part of the state cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency. Like the majority of government agencies, Caltrans is headquartered in Sacramento. In 2015, Caltrans released a new statement, Provide a safe, sustainable, integrated and efficient transportation system to enhance California’s economy. The earliest predecessor of Caltrans was the Bureau of Highways, which was created by the California Legislature and this agency consisted of three commissioners who were charged with analyzing the state road system and making recommendations. At the time, there was no highway system, since roads were purely a local responsibility. After the commissioners submitted their report to the governor on November 25,1896, voters approved an $18 million bond issue for the construction of a state highway system in 1910, and the first Highway Commission was convened in 1911. On August 7,1912, the department broke ground on its first construction project, the year 1912 also saw the founding of the Transportation Laboratory and the creation of seven administrative divisions. In 1913, the legislature started requiring vehicle registration and allocated the funds to support regular highway maintenance. In 1921, the legislature turned the Department of Engineering into the Department of Public Works, the history of Caltrans and its predecessor agencies during the 20th century was marked by many firsts. In late 1972, the legislature approved a reorganization in which the Department of Public Works was merged with the Department of Aeronautics to become the modern Department of Transportation, for administrative purposes, Caltrans divides the State of California into 12 districts, supervised by district offices. Most districts cover multiple counties, District 12 is the district with one county. The largest districts by population are District 4 and District 7, like most state agencies, Caltrans maintains its headquarters in Sacramento, which is covered by District 3. Official California Department of Transportation website Named Highways, Freeways, Structures, and Other Appurtenances in California
28.
Bridge
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A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles without closing the way underneath such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle. There are many different designs that each serve a particular purpose, the Oxford English Dictionary traces the origin of the word bridge to an Old English word brycg, of the same meaning. The word can be traced back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēw-. The word for the game of the same name has a different origin. The first bridges made by humans were probably spans of cut wooden logs or planks and eventually stones, using a simple support, some early Americans used trees or bamboo poles to cross small caverns or wells to get from one place to another. Dating to the Greek Bronze Age, it is one of the oldest arch bridges still in existence, several intact arched stone bridges from the Hellenistic era can be found in the Peloponnese. The greatest bridge builders of antiquity were the ancient Romans, the Romans built arch bridges and aqueducts that could stand in conditions that would damage or destroy earlier designs. An example is the Alcántara Bridge, built over the river Tagus, the Romans also used cement, which reduced the variation of strength found in natural stone. One type of cement, called pozzolana, consisted of water, lime, sand, brick and mortar bridges were built after the Roman era, as the technology for cement was lost. In India, the Arthashastra treatise by Kautilya mentions the construction of dams, a Mauryan bridge near Girnar was surveyed by James Princep. The bridge was swept away during a flood, and later repaired by Puspagupta, the use of stronger bridges using plaited bamboo and iron chain was visible in India by about the 4th century. A number of bridges, both for military and commercial purposes, were constructed by the Mughal administration in India and this bridge is also historically significant as it is the worlds oldest open-spandrel stone segmental arch bridge. European segmental arch bridges date back to at least the Alconétar Bridge, rope bridges, a simple type of suspension bridge, were used by the Inca civilization in the Andes mountains of South America, just prior to European colonization in the 16th century. During the 18th century there were innovations in the design of timber bridges by Hans Ulrich Grubenmann, Johannes Grubenmann. The first book on bridge engineering was written by Hubert Gautier in 1716, a major breakthrough in bridge technology came with the erection of the Iron Bridge in Shropshire, England in 1779. It used cast iron for the first time as arches to cross the river Severn, with the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, truss systems of wrought iron were developed for larger bridges, but iron does not have the tensile strength to support large loads. With the advent of steel, which has a tensile strength, much larger bridges were built. In 1927 welding pioneer Stefan Bryła designed the first welded bridge in the world
29.
Plant community
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The components of each plant community are influenced by soil type, topography, climate and human disturbance. In many cases there are several soil types within a given phytocoenosis, a plant community can be described floristically and/or physiognomically. For example, a forest includes the overstory, or upper layer of the canopy, as well as the understory, further subdivided into the shrub layer, herbaceous layer. In some cases of complex forests there is also a well-defined lower tree layer, a plant community can be rare even if none of the major species defining it are rare. This is because it is the association of species and relationship to their environment that may be rare, an example is the Sycamore Alluvial Woodland in California dominated by the California sycamore Platanus racemosa. The community is rare, being localized to an area of California and existing nowhere else. An example is a grassland on the northern Caucasus Steppes, where common grass species found are Festuca sulcata, a common sedge in this grassland phytocoenosis is Carex shreberi. Other representative forbs occurring in these grasslands are Artemisia austriaca. An example of a three tiered plant community is in Central Westland of South Island, New Zealand and these forests are the most extensive continuous reaches of podocarp/broadleaf forests in that country. The overstory includes miro, rimu and mountain totara, community Association size-asymmetric competition Ecosystem Habitat Phytosociology Salt Marsh Stand level modelling Jean-Michel Gobat, Michel Aragno, Willy Matthey and V. A. K. Sarma. The living soil C. Michael Hogan, crown Fern, Blechnum discolor, Globaltwitcher. com, ed. N. Stromberg J. M. Suttie, Stephen G. Reynolds and Caterina Batello. Grasslands of the world, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,514 pages
30.
Mudflat
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Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats, are coastal wetlands that form when mud is deposited by tides or rivers. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of estuarine silts, clays and marine animal detritus. Most of the sediment within a mudflat is within the intertidal zone, in the past tidal flats were considered unhealthy, economically unimportant areas and were often dredged and developed into agricultural land. Several especially shallow mudflat areas, such as the Wadden Sea, are now popular among those practising the sport of mudflat hiking. On the Baltic Sea coast of Germany in places, mudflats are exposed not by tidal action and these wind-affected mudflats are called windwatts in German. Tidal flats, along with salt marshes and mangrove forests, are important ecosystems. They are often of importance to migratory birds, as well as certain species of crabs, mollusks. In the United Kingdom mudflats have been classified as a Biodiversity Action Plan priority habitat, the maintenance of mudflats is important in preventing coastal erosion. However, mudflats worldwide are under threat from predicted sea level rises, land claims for development, dredging due to shipping purposes, in some parts of the world, such as East and South-East Asia, mudflats have been reclaimed for aquaculture, agriculture, and industrial development. For example, around the Yellow Sea region of East Asia, mudflat sediment deposits are focused into the intertidal zone which is composed of a barren zone, marsh and salt pan. Within these areas are various ratios of sand and mud that make up the sedimentary layers, the associated growth of coastal sediment deposits can be attributed to rates of subsidence along with rates of deposition and changes in sea level. Barren zones extend from the lowest portion of the zone to the marsh areas. Beginning in close proximity to the bars, sand dominated layers are prominent. Common bedding types include laminated sand, ripple bedding, and bay mud, bioturbation also has a strong presence in barren zones. Marshes contain an abundance of plants while the sediment layers consist of thin sand. Mudcracks are a common as well as wavy bedding planes, marshes are also the origins of coal/peat layers because of the abundant decaying plant life. Salt pans can be distinguished in that they contain thinly laminated layers of clayey silt, the main source of the silt comes from rivers. Dried up mud along with wind erosion forms silt dunes, when flooding, rain or tides come in, the dried sediment is then re-distributed
31.
Salicornia
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Salicornia is a genus of succulent, halophyte flowering plants in the family Amaranthaceae that grow in salt marshes, on beaches, and among mangroves. Salicornia species are native to North America, Europe, South Africa, common names for the genus include glasswort, pickleweed, and marsh samphire, these common names are also used for some species not in Salicornia. The Salicornia species are annual herbs. They grow prostrate to erect, their simple or branched stems are succulent, glabrous, older stems may be somewhat woody basally. The opposite leaves are fleshy, glabrous, sessile, basally connate and decurrent, the leaf blades are reduced to small collar-like scales with narrow scarious margin. Many species are green, but their foliage turns red in autumn, all stems are terminating in spike-like apparently jointed inflorescences. Each joint consists of two minute bracts with an 3-flowered cyme tightly embedded in cavities of the main axis. The flowers are arranged in a triangle, both lateral flowers beneath the central flower, the hermaphrodite flowers are more or less radially symmetric, with a perianth of three fleshy tepals connate nearly to the apex. There are 1-2 stamens and an ovary with two stigmas, the perianth is persistent in fruit. The vertical seed is ellipsoid, with brown, membranous. Like most members of the subfamily Salicornioideae, Salicornia species use the C3 carbon fixation pathway to take in carbon dioxide from the surrounding atmosphere, the species of Salicornia are widely distributed over the Northern Hemisphere and in southern Africa, ranging from the subtropics to subarctic regions. They are absent from South America and Australia and they grow in coastal salt marshes and in inland salty habitats like shores of salt lakes. Salicornia species are halophytes and can generally tolerate immersion in salt water, Salicornia species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the Coleophora case-bearers C. atriplicis and C. salicorniae. The genus probably originated during the Miocene in the region between the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia, evolving from within the perennial and frost-sensitive genus Sarcocornia, the annual, strongly inbreeding and frost-tolerant Salicornia diversified during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene. By events of intercontinental dispersals, they reached southern Africa twice, two tetraploid lineages expanded rapidly, with the ability to colonize lower belts of the saltmarshes than their diploid relatives. Inbreeding and geographical isolation led to a number of reproductive isolated species that are only weakly differentiated. The genus Salicornia was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus, Salicornia europaea was selected as the type species. The taxonomic classification of this genus is difficult, determination of species seems almost impossible for non-specialists
32.
Halophyte
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An example of a halophyte is the salt marsh grass Spartina alterniflora. Relatively few plant species are halophytes—perhaps only 2% of all plant species, the large majority of plant species are glycophytes, which are not salt-tolerant and are damaged fairly easily by high salinity. One quantitative measure of tolerance is the total dissolved solids in irrigation water that a plant can tolerate. Seawater typically contains 40 grams per litre of dissolved salts, beans and rice can tolerate about 1–3 g/l, and are considered glycophytes. At the other extreme, Salicornia bigelovii grows well at 70 g/l of dissolved solids, plants such as barley and the date palm can tolerate about 5 g/l, and can be considered as marginal halophytes. Adaptation to saline environments by halophytes may take the form of tolerance or salt avoidance. Plants that avoid the effects of high salt even though they live in an environment may be referred to as facultative halophytes rather than true, or obligatory. For example, a plant species that completes its reproductive life cycle during periods when the salt concentration is low would be avoiding salt rather than tolerating it. Adaptive responses to salinity stress have been identified at molecular, cellular, metabolic, halophytes such as Salicornia bigelovii can be grown in harsh environments and typically do not compete with food crops for resources, making them promising sources of biodiesel or bioalcohol
33.
Detritus
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In biology, detritus is dead particulate organic material. It typically includes the bodies or fragments of organisms as well as fecal material. Detritus is typically colonized by communities of microorganisms which act to decompose the material, in terrestrial ecosystems, it is encountered as leaf litter and other organic matter intermixed with soil, which is referred to as humus. Detritus of aquatic ecosystems is organic material suspended in water and piles up on seabed floors which is referred to as marine snow. Dead plants or animals, material derived from animal tissues gradually lose their form, decomposition, the process through which organic matter is decomposed, takes place in many stages. Materials like proteins, lipids and sugars with low weight are rapidly consumed and absorbed by micro-organisms and organisms that feed on dead matter. Other compounds, such as complex carbohydrates are broken down more slowly, the various micro-organisms involved in the decomposition break down the organic materials in order to gain the resources they require for their own survival and proliferation. Accordingly, at the time that the materials of plants and animals are being broken down. In ecosystems on land, detritus is deposited on the surface of the ground, in aquatic ecosystems, most detritus is suspended in water, and gradually settles. In particular, many different types of material are collected together by currents, much detritus is used as a source of nutrition for animals. In particular, many bottom feeding animals living in mud flats feed in this way, however, there are many micro-organisms which multiply in natural environments. A characteristic type of food chain called the cycle takes place involving detritus feeders, detritus. For example, mud flats are inhabited by many univalves which are detritus feeders, what is left behind by the detritivores is then further broken down and recycled by decomposers, such as bacteria and fungi. In ecosystems on land, far more material is broken down as dead material passing through the detritus chain than is broken down by being eaten by animals in a living state. In both land and aquatic ecosystems, the role played by detritus is too large to ignore, in contrast to land ecosystems, dead materials and excreta in aquatic ecosystems do not settle immediately, and the finer the particles involved are, the longer they tend to take. Detritus occurs in a variety of habitats including forest, chaparral. In forests the detritus is typically dominated by leaf, twig and this plant litter provides important cover for seedling protection as well as cover for a variety of arthropods, reptiles and amphibians. Some insect larvae feed on the detritus, there is an extremely large number of detritus feeders in water
34.
Estuary
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An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a zone between river environments and maritime environments. They are subject both to marine influences—such as tides, waves, and the influx of saline water—and to riverine influences—such as flows of fresh water and sediment. The inflows of sea water and fresh water provide high levels of nutrients both in the water column and in sediment, making estuaries among the most productive natural habitats in the world. Most existing estuaries formed during the Holocene epoch with the flooding of river-eroded or glacially scoured valleys when the sea began to rise about 10. Estuaries are typically classified according to their geomorphological features or to water-circulation patterns, the banks of many estuaries are amongst the most heavily populated areas of the world, with about 60% of the worlds population living along estuaries and the coast. The word estuary is derived from the Latin word aestuarium meaning tidal inlet of the sea, there have been many definitions proposed to describe an estuary. However, this definition excludes a number of water bodies such as coastal lagoons. This broad definition also includes fjords, lagoons, river mouths, an estuary is a dynamic ecosystem having a connection to the open sea through which the sea water enters with the rhythm of the tides. The sea water entering the estuary is diluted by the water flowing from rivers. The pattern of dilution varies between different estuaries and depends on the volume of water, the tidal range. Drowned river valleys are known as coastal plain estuaries. In places where the sea level is rising relative to the land, sea water progressively penetrates into river valleys and this is the most common type of estuary in temperate climates. Well-studied estuaries include the Severn Estuary in the United Kingdom and the Ems Dollard along the Dutch-German border, the width-to-depth ratio of these estuaries is typically large, appearing wedge-shaped in the inner part and broadening and deepening seaward. Water depths rarely exceed 30 m, examples of this type of estuary in the U. S. are the Hudson River, Chesapeake Bay, and Delaware Bay along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and Galveston Bay and Tampa Bay along the Gulf Coast. They are relatively common in tropical and subtropical locations and these estuaries are semi-isolated from ocean waters by barrier beaches. Formation of barrier beaches partially encloses the estuary, with only narrow inlets allowing contact with the ocean waters, bar-built estuaries typically develop on gently sloping plains located along tectonically stable edges of continents and marginal sea coasts. They are extensive along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the U. S. in areas with active coastal deposition of sediments, barrier beaches form in shallow water and are generally parallel to the shoreline, resulting in long, narrow estuaries
35.
Food chain
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A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms and ending at apex predator species, detritivores, or decomposer species. A food chain also shows how the organisms are related with each other by the food they eat, each level of a food chain represents a different trophic level. A food chain differs from a web, because the complex network of different animals feeding relations are aggregated. Natural interconnections between food chains make it a food web, a common metric used to quantify food web trophic structure is food chain length. Food chains are used in ecological modeling. They are simplified abstractions of real food webs, but complex in their dynamics, food chain studies have an important role in ecotoxicology studies tracing the pathways and biomagnification of environmental contaminants. Producers, such as plants, are organisms that utilize solar or chemical energy to synthesize starch, all food chains must start with a producer. In the deep sea, food chains centered on hydrothermal vents, chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea use hydrogen sulfide and methane from hydrothermal vents and cold seeps as an energy source to produce carbohydrates, they form the base of the food chain. Consumers are organisms that eat other organisms, all organisms in a food chain, except the first organism, are consumers. Autotroph Heterotroph Lithotroph Trophic pyramid Predator-prey interaction
36.
Anseriformes
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In fact, these living species are all included in Anatidae except for the three screamers and the magpie goose. All species in the order are highly adapted for an aquatic existence at the water surface, the males, except for the screamers, also have a penis, a trait that has disappeared in Neoaves. All are web-footed for efficient swimming, the earliest known Anseriform is the recently discovered Vegavis, which lived during the Cretaceous period. It is thought that the Anseriformes originated when the original Galloanserae split into the two main lineages, the extinct dromornithids may possibly represent early offshoots of the anseriform line, if they arent stem-Galliformes instead, and so maybe Gastornis. The ancestors of the Anseriformes developed the characteristic bill structure that they still share, the prehistoric wading presbyornithids were even more bizarre. The Anseriformes and the Galliformes are the most primitive neognathous birds, Anatidae systematics, especially regarding placement of some odd genera in the dabbling ducks or shelducks, is not fully resolved. See the Anatidae article for information, and for alternate taxonomic approaches. Some unusual groups, such as the extinct Gastornithidae and Dromornithidae, are found to be at the base of the Anseriformes family tree. Anatidae is traditionally divided into subfamilies Anatinae and Anserinae, the Anatinae consists of tribes Anatini, Aythyini, Mergini and Tadornini. The higher-order classification below follows a phylogenetic analysis performed by Angolin,2007, Mikkos Phylogeny Archive, the clade Somaterini has a single genus Somateria. List of Anseriformes by population Agnolin, F. Brontornis burmeisteri Moreno & Mercerat, un Anseriformes gigante del Mioceno Medio de Patagonia, revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales. Clarke, J. A. Tambussi, C. P. Noriega, erickson, G. M. & Ketcham, R. A. Definitive fossil evidence for the extant avian radiation in the Cretaceous, & Zusi, R. L. Higher-order phylogeny of modern birds based on comparative anatomy. Zoological Journal of the Linnen Society, murray, P. F. & Vickers-Rich, P. Magnificent Mihirungs, The Colossal Flightless Birds of the Australian Dreamtime
37.
Bird
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Birds, a subgroup of Reptiles, are the last living examples of Dinosaurs. Birds live worldwide and range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the class of tetrapods with the most living species, at ten thousand. Birds are the closest living relatives of crocodilians, the fossil record indicates that birds evolved from feathered ancestors within the theropod group of saurischian dinosaurs. True birds first appeared during the Cretaceous period, around 100 million years ago, Birds, especially those in the southern continents, survived this event and then migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Birds have wings which are more or less developed depending on the species, the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are also uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments, particularly seabirds and some waterbirds, have evolved for swimming. Many species annually migrate great distances, Birds are social, communicating with visual signals, calls, and bird songs, and participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting, flocking, and mobbing of predators. The vast majority of species are socially monogamous, usually for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or, rarely, Birds produce offspring by laying eggs which are fertilised through sexual reproduction. They are usually laid in a nest and incubated by the parents, most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching. Some birds, such as hens, lay eggs even when not fertilised, songbirds, parrots, and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser, Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them. Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry, the first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system currently in use, Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda, Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria
38.
Killdeer
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The killdeer is a medium-sized plover. The genus name Charadrius is a Late Latin word for a bird mentioned in the fourth-century Vulgate. It derives from Ancient Greek kharadrios a bird found in ravines, the specific vociferus is Latin and comes from vox, cry and ferre, to bear. The adults have a back and wings, a white belly. The face and cap are brown with a white forehead, the chicks are patterned almost identically to the adults, and are precocial — able to move around immediately after hatching. The killdeer frequently uses a broken wing act to distract predators from the nest and it is named onomatopoeically after its call. Adult killdeer range in length from 23–27 cm with a wingspan averaging 17.5 cm, the largest ringed plover, killdeer weigh 88 g on average. Killdeer have a large, round head, long tail, long flesh-colored legs. The bill is short, dark, and thick, plumage is brownish-tan on dorsal areas and white on the ventral belly and chest, the neck is also surrounded by a white collar. Two large, dark bands surround the upper breast with an additional band located on the head, the tail is brown with a black subterminal band, a white terminal band, and white outer tail feathers. Additional defining plumage characters include a brightly colored red-orange rump that is visible during flight and displays, appearance does not vary between males and females, although breeding females may have additional brown plumage on the head. In addition, Hayman et al. document killdeer use of wetland habitat and savannahs, selecting dry bare ground. Nesting habitat is characterized as having enough nest materials to form a scrape but otherwise having little or no vegetation, during the non-breeding season killdeer use coastal wetland and beach habitat as well as coastal fields. Ogden et al. suggest that coastal open-soil agricultural lands supplement intertidal habitat frequently used by killdeer during the non-breeding season, the range of the killdeer spreads across the Western Hemisphere. In the summer, killdeer live as far north as the Canadian provinces of Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Killdeer hold a year-round presence across the southern half of the United States and parts of Peru. The killdeer winters throughout Central America, although killdeer are considered shorebirds, they often live far from water. They live in habitats such as fields, meadows. The nest itself is merely a shallow depression or bowl in the ground, the nest is well camouflaged, as the spots of the eggs disguise them as stones, and the simple structure of the nest resembles its surroundings
39.
Mallard
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This duck belongs to the subfamily Anatinae of the waterfowl family Anatidae. The male birds have a green head and are grey on wings and belly. Both sexes have an area of white-bordered black speculum feathers which commonly also include iridescent blue feathers especially among males, mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. This species is the ancestor of most breeds of domesticated ducks. The mallard was one of the bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 18th-century work Systema Naturae. The scientific name is from Latin Anas, duck and Ancient Greek platyrhynchus, Mallard originally referred to any wild drake and it is sometimes still used this way. It was derived from the Old French malart or mallart for wild drake and it may be related to an Old High German masculine proper name Madelhart, clues lying in the alternate English forms maudelard or mawdelard. Masle has also proposed as an influence. This is quite unusual among such different species, and apparently is because the mallard evolved very rapidly and recently, the distinct lineages of this radiation are usually kept separate due to non-overlapping ranges and behavioural cues, but are still not fully genetically incompatible. Mallards and their domesticated conspecifics are also fully interfertile, the genome of Anas platyrhynchos was sequenced in 2013. Mallards appear to be closer to their Indo-Pacific relatives than to their American ones judging from biogeography, the large ice age palaeosubspecies which made up at least the European and west Asian populations during the Pleistocene has been named Anas platyrhynchos palaeoboschas. In their mitochondrial DNA, mallards are differentiated between North America and Eurasia, however, in the nuclear genome there is a lack of genetic structure. Haplotypes typical of American mallard relatives and spotbills can be found in mallards around the Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands hold a population of mallards that appear to be evolving towards a subspecies, as gene flow with other populations is very limited. The size of the mallard varies clinally, and birds from Greenland and they are sometimes separated as subspecies, the Greenland mallard. The mallard is a waterfowl species although it is often slightly heavier than most other dabbling ducks. It is 50–65 cm long, has a wingspan of 81–98 cm, and weighs 0. 72–1.58 kg. Among standard measurements, the chord is 25.7 to 30.6 cm, the bill is 4.4 to 6.1 cm. The breeding male mallard is unmistakable, with a glossy bottle-green head and white collar which demarcates the head from the purple-tinged brown breast, grey wings
40.
Snowy egret
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The snowy egret is a small white heron. The genus name comes from the Provençal French for the little egret aigrette, the species name thula is the Araucano for the Black-necked Swan, applied to this species in error by Chilean naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina in 1782. The snowy egret is the American counterpart to the very similar Old World little egret, at one time, the beautiful plumes of the snowy egret were in great demand by market hunters as decorations for womens hats. This reduced the population of the species to dangerously low levels, now protected in the United States by law, under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, this birds population has rebounded. Adults are typically 61 cm long and weigh 375 g They have a black bill. The area of the bill, in front of the eyes, is yellow but turns red during the breeding season. The juvenile looks similar to the adult, but the base of the bill is paler, Snowy egrets nest in colonies on thick vegetation in isolated places, such as barrier islands, dredge-spoil islands, salt marsh islands, swamps, and marshes. They often change location from year to year, during the breeding season, snowy egrets feed in estuaries, saltmarshes, tidal channels, shallow bays, and mangroves. They winter in mangroves, saltwater lagoons, freshwater swamps, grassy ponds, and temporary pools, and forage on beaches, shallow reefs, the snowy egret eats mostly aquatic animals, including fish, frogs, worms, crustaceans, and insects. It often uses its bright yellow feet to paddle in the water or probe in the mud, Snowy egrets feed while standing, walking, running, or hopping, and they may vibrate their bills, sway their heads, or flick their wings as part of prey gathering. Snowy egrets forage in saltmarsh pools, tidal channels, tidal flats, freshwater marshes, swamps, ocean inlets, other foraging water birds often assemble around them to form mixed-species foraging groups. Snowy egrets are permanent residents in most of South America and Central America, during the breeding season, snowy egrets wander north along the Atlantic flyway between the lower Chesapeake Bay and coastal Rhode Island, and up the Pacific Coast to northern California. Snowy egrets also breed in the lower Mississippi Valley westward into eastern Texas, birds banded in United States have been recovered as far away as Panama and Trinidad. The birds eat fish, crustaceans, insects, small reptiles, snails, frogs, worms, mice and they stalk prey in shallow water, often running or shuffling their feet, flushing prey into view, as well dip-fishing by flying with their feet just over the water. Snowy egrets may also stand still and wait to ambush prey, Snowy egret photo gallery at VIREO Snowy egret species account at NeotropicalBirds
41.
Fish
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A fish is any member of a group of animals that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous, tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered obsolete or paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods, because in this manner the term fish is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification, the earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts, fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators, the first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water and they can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans. With 33,100 described species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any group of vertebrates. Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food, commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean. They are also caught by fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, fish do not represent a monophyletic group, and therefore the evolution of fish is not studied as a single event. Early fish from the record are represented by a group of small, jawless. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct, an extant clade, the lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placodermi fossils, the diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like sea squirt, whose larvae resemble primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the form into adulthood. Fish are a group, that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods
42.
Anchovy
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An anchovy is a small, common salt-water forage fish of the family Engraulidae. The 144 species are placed in 17 genera, they are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and in the Black Sea, Anchovies are usually classified as oily fish. Anchovies are small, green fish with blue reflections due to a longitudinal stripe that runs from the base of the caudal fin. They range from 2 to 40 cm in length. The snout is blunt with tiny, sharp teeth in both jaws, the snout contains a unique rostral organ, believed to be sensory in nature, although its exact function is unknown. The mouth is larger than that of herrings and silversides, two fish which anchovies closely resemble in other respects, the anchovy eats plankton and recently hatched fish. Anchovies are found in scattered areas throughout the oceans, but are concentrated in temperate waters. They are generally accepting of a wide range of temperatures. Large schools can be found in shallow, brackish areas with muddy bottoms, as in estuaries and they are abundant in the Mediterranean, particularly in the Alboran Sea, Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. The species is caught along the coasts of Crete, Greece, Sicily, Italy, France, Turkey. They are also found on the coast of northern Africa, the range of the species also extends along the Atlantic coast of Europe to the south of Norway. Spawning occurs between October and March, but not in water colder than 12 °C, the anchovy appears to spawn at least 100 km from the shore, near the surface of the water. The anchovy is a significant food source for almost every predatory fish in its environment, including the California halibut, rock fish, yellowtail, shark, chinook, and coho salmon. It is also important to marine mammals and birds, for example, breeding success of California brown pelicans. Anchovies, like most clupeoids, are filter-feeders that open their mouths as they swim, as water passes through the mouth and out the gills, food particles are sieved by gill rakers and transferred into the esophagus. * Type species On average, the Turkish commercial fishing fleet catches around 300,000 tons per year, the largest catch is in November and December. The Peruvian anchovy fishery is one of the largest in the world, in 1973 it collapsed catastrophically due to the combined effects of overfishing and El Niño and did not recover fully for two decades. A traditional method of processing and preserving anchovies is to gut and salt them in brine, allow them to mature and this results in a characteristic strong flavor and the flesh turns deep grey
43.
Bat ray
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It is also found in the area around the Galápagos Islands. The largest specimens can grow to a wingspan of 1.8 m and they more typically range from 9. 07–13.61 kg. Bat rays are euryhaline, i. e. they are able to live in environments with a range of salinities. Bat rays feed on mollusks, crustaceans and small fish on the seabed, using their pectoral fins to move sand. They may also dig trenches up to 20 cm deep to expose buried prey, bat ray teeth are flat and pavementlike, forming tightly-packed rows that are used for crushing and grinding prey—the crushed shells are ejected and the flesh consumed. As with all elasmobranchs, these teeth fall out and are replaced continuously, while the bat ray, like other stingrays, has a venomous spine in its tail, it is not considered dangerous and uses the spine only when attacked or frightened. Currently, the bat ray is fished commercially in Mexico but not the United States, however, it is sometimes fished for sport for its fighting characteristics. Prehistorically, native tribes on the California coast, especially in the San Francisco Bay area, fished bat rays in large numbers, commercial growers have long believed bat rays prey on oysters, and trapped them in large numbers. In fact, crabs are principally responsible for oyster loss, bat rays are not considered endangered or threatened. Bat Rays are popular in parks, and visitors are often allowed to touch or stroke the ray. They mate annually, in the spring or summer, and have a period of nine to twelve months. Litter sizes range from two to ten — pups emerge with their pectoral fins wrapped around the body, and the spine is flexible. Bat rays live up to 23 years, bat rays copulate while swimming with synchronized wingbeats—the male under the female. The male inserts a clasper into the cloaca, channeling semen into the orifice to fertilize her eggs
44.
Leopard shark
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The leopard shark is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U. S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Large schools of leopard sharks are a sight in bays and estuaries, swimming over sandy or muddy flats or rock-strewn areas near kelp beds. They are most common near the coast, in less than 4 m deep. Active-swimming predators, groups of leopard sharks often follow the tide onto mudflats to forage for food, mainly clams, spoon worms, crabs, shrimp, bony fish. This species is viviparous, meaning that the young hatch inside the uterus and are nourished by yolk. From March to June, the female gives birth to as many as 37 young after a period of 10–12 months. It is relatively slow-growing and takes years to mature. Harmless to humans, the shark is caught by commercial and recreational fisheries for food. However, Gray did not furnish the name with a proper description, in December 1854, American ichthyologist William Orville Ayres gave a lecture describing the species as Mustelus felis, which included the first scientific description of the species. His lecture was reprinted first in The Pacific, a San Francisco newspaper, in April 1855, French biologist Charles Frédéric Girard published another description of this species, naming it Triakis semifasciata. Despite M. felis being the senior synonym, an error in recording the dates of publication resulted in the use of T. semifasciata as the leopard sharks scientific name. As a result of this error, Triakis semifasciata came to be recognized as the valid name. The specific epithet comes from the Latin words semi and fasciatus. In older literature, this species may be referred to as tiger shark or catshark, the genus Triakis contains two subgenera, Triakis and Cazon. The leopard shark is placed within the subgenus Triakis along with the banded houndshark, a 2006 phylogenetic analysis by J. The leopard shark occurs in the cool to warm-temperater continental waters of the northeastern Pacific Ocean, from Coos Bay, Oregon to Mazatlán, Mexico, including the Gulf of California. It favors muddy or sandy flats within enclosed bays and estuaries, numbers have been known to gather near discharges of warm effluent from power plants
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Spiny dogfish
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The spiny dogfish, spurdog, mud shark, or piked dogfish is one of the best known species of the Squalidae family of sharks, which is part of the Squaliformes order. While these common names may apply to species, Squalus acanthias is distinguished by having two spines and lacks an anal fin. It is found mostly in waters and further offshore in most parts of the world. Spiny dogfish in the northern Pacific Ocean have recently been reevaluated and found to constitute a species, now known as Pacific spiny dogfish. The spiny dogfish has dorsal spines, no anal fin, the caudal fin has asymmetrical lobes, forming a heterocercal tail. The species name refers to the sharks two spines. If captured, the shark can arch its back to pierce its captor, glands at the base of the spines secrete a mild venom. Males mature at around 11 years of age, growing to 80–100 cm in length, females mature in 18–21 years and are larger than males. Both sexes are brown in color and are countershaded. Males are identified by a pair of pelvic fins modified as sperm-transfer organs, the male inserts one clasper into the female cloaca during copulation. Reproduction is aplacental viviparous, which was before called ovoviviparity, the male inserts one clasper into the female oviduct orifice and injects sperm along a groove on the claspers dorsal section. Immediately following fertilization, the eggs are surrounded by thin shells called candles with one candle usually surrounding several eggs, mating takes place in the winter months with gestation lasting 22–24 months. Litters range between 2 and 11 but average 6 or 7, spiny dogfish are bottom-dwellers They are commonly found at depths of around 50-149m, but have been found deeper than 700m. Life span is estimated to be up to 100 years and their period is 18 to 24 months. Spiny dogfish are fished for food in Europe, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, the meat is primarily consumed in England, France, the Benelux countries and Germany. The fins and tails are processed into fin needles and are used in less expensive versions of shark fin soup in Chinese cuisine. In England this and other dogfish are sold in fish and chip shops as rock salmon or huss, in France it is sold as salmon and in Belgium. Reported catches in 2000–2009 varied between 13,800 and 31,700 tonnes, bottom trawlers and sink gillnets are the primary equipment used to harvest spiny dogfish
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Striped bass
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It has also been widely introduced into inland recreational fisheries across the United States. Striped bass found in the Gulf of Mexico are a separate strain referred to as Gulf Coast striped bass. The striped bass is the fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, and South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, New Jersey, Virginia. The history of the striped bass fishery in North America dates back to the Colonial period, many written accounts by some of the first European settlers describe the immense abundance of striped bass, along with alewives, traveling and spawning up most rivers in the coastal Northeast. The striped bass is a member of the Moronidae family in shape, having a streamlined. Common mature size is 8 to 40 pounds, the largest specimen recorded was 124 pounds, netted in 1896. Striped bass are believed to live for up to 30 years, the maximum length is 1.8 m. The average size is about 67–100 cm and 4. 5–14.5 kg, striped bass are native to the Atlantic coastline of North America from the St. Lawrence River into the Gulf of Mexico to approximately Louisiana. They are anadromous fish migrate between fresh and salt water. Spawning takes place in fresh water, striped bass have also been introduced into waters in Ecuador, Iran, Latvia, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Turkey, primarily for sport fishing and aquaculture. The spawning success of striped bass has been studied in the San Francisco Bay-Delta water system, at levels as low as 200 mg/l TDS, an observable diminution of spawning productivity occurs. They can be found in lakes, ponds, streams, and this pressure on their food source was putting their own population at risk due to the population of prey naturally not coming back to the same spawning areas. In Canada, the province of Quebec designated the striped bass population of the Saint Lawrence as extirpated in 1996, analysis of available data implicated overfishing and dredging in the disappearance. In 2002, a program was successful. Striped bass spawn in water, and although they have been successfully adapted to freshwater habitat. Four important bodies of water with breeding stocks of striped bass are, Chesapeake Bay, Massachusetts Bay/Cape Cod, Hudson River, many of the rivers and tributaries that emptied into the Atlantic, had at one time, bred stock of striped bass. One of the largest breeding areas is the Chesapeake Bay, where populations from Chesapeake, stocking of striped bass was discontinued at Lake Mead in 1973 once natural reproduction was verified. Striped bass have also been hybridized with white bass to produce hybrid striped bass also known as wiper, whiterock bass, sunshine bass, palmetto bass and these hybrids have been stocked in many freshwater areas across the US
