Coastal resilience: the ability for a coastal community to successfully recover after a hazardous event such as coastal storms, hurricanes, and flooding.
Denitrification: the microbial process of reducing nitrate and nitrite to gaseous forms of nitrogen, principally nitrous oxide (N2O) and nitrogen (N2).
Ecosystem Engineers: any organism that modify, maintain and/or create habitat. These organisms tend to have a large impact on species richness and abundance. Ex. Coral
Ecosystem Services: the outputs, conditions, or processes of natural systems that directly or indirectly benefit humans or enhance social welfare. Ecosystem services can be divided into provisioning services, regulating services, cultural services, and supporting services.
Enhancement: to increase or improve in quality, value, or extent.
Eutrophication: Excess nutrients run off and enter into bodies of water such as lakes and rivers. The excess nutrients cause algal blooms, which use up oxygen from the water column and cause the death of other organisms. Cow manure, agricultural fertilizer, detergents, and human waste are all sources of excess nitrogen and phosphates.
Estuary: a coastal water body where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean.
Socio-Ecological Systems (SES): systems that include complex and interconnected relationships between humans and nature.
Shellfish: shellfish is a general term used to describe an organism that has a shell. Mollusks (e.g. mussels or quahaugs) are considered shellfish.
Stakeholder: an entity that has an interest or concern in something. Stakeholders can include government representatives, businesses, scientists, landowners, and local users of natural resources.