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Glossary
This glossary is from the Karst and Caves of Southeast Alaska - A Teachers' Resource.
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T V W
ALKALINE Water or another substance with a pH (percentage of hydrogen) greater than 7. Acidic water (pH less than 7) from muskegs can be neutralized and become alkaline by reacting with the calcite of karst formations.
ALPINE Higher-elevation terrestrial region, above treeline, and often the associated vegetation community. Alpine epikarst typically lacks vegetation.
AMPHIPOD Small crustaceans of the group Amphipoda , including beach fleas and sand hoppers.
ANADROMOUS Migrating from the sea up a river to spawn, as in salmon species.
AQUATIC Of, in, or pertaining to water; living or growing in water.
AQUIFER A permeable subsurface stratum, or zone, through which groundwater moves in sufficient quantities to supply water for wells and springs.
ARCHAEOLOGY Scientific study of historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures by analysis of their artifacts, inscriptions, monuments and other such remains, especially those that have been excavated.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE A scientifically administered location that yields evidence relating to historic or prehistoric peoples and their cultures; may be above ground, in a cave, buried below ground level, or even under water.
ARACHNID An arthropod of the class Arachnida , comprising 57,000 species of spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks. Most are terrestrial, breath air and have four pairs of walking legs.
ARTIFACT A human-made object, such as a prehistoric tool, weapon, or pottery shard.
ARTHROPOD Any segmented invertebrate of the phylum Arthropoda having jointed legs and exoskeletons composed of hard chitin; includes insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. This largest phylum in the animal kingdom, with more than 1 million species classified to date.
AUTOTROPHIC Capable of utilizing only inorganic materials as a source of food, as most plants and certain bacteria and protozoans.
BEDROCK Solid rock that lies beneath the soil. In karstlands the bedrock, often limestone, is soluble (can be dissolved) by the chemical action of carbonic acid and is referred to as soluble bedrock.
BERING LAND BRIDGE The connecting land mass which existed between Siberia and Alaska during the last glacial advance, which lowered sea levels. People and animals may have migrated along this continental connection 15,000 to 11,000 years ago.
BERINGIA Referring to the Bering Land Bridge region of the last ice age.
BIOSPELEOLOGY Exploration and study of the flora and fauna (plants and animals) of caves.
BIOTIC Of or pertaining to life; typically, plants and animals in a natural environment or ecosystem.
BOTANY Scientific study of plants, plant life and plant communities of a region.
BRACHIOPOD A mollusk-like marine animal, phylum Brachiopoda . These animals have hard dorsal and ventral shells, resemble clams and feed by means of a lophophore. They are represented by 30,000 extinct species and 250 living species.
BRECCIA Rock composed of angular fragments of older rocks cemented together.
CATCHMENT Something that catches water.
CAVERN / CAVE Any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess, or system of interconnected passages which occurs beneath the surface of the earth or within a cliff or ledge and which is large enough to permit an individual to enter, whether or not the entrance is naturally formed or human-made. This includes any natural pit, sinkhole, or other feature which is an extension of the surface. (From the Federal Cave Resource Protection Act, 1988.)
CALCAREOUS Containing calcium carbonate.
CALCITE A common mineral, also known as calcium carbonate, that occurs in a great variety of crystalline forms. It is a major constituent of limestone, marble, chalk and the exoskeletons of many marine organisms.
CAVE POPCORN A formation of delicate crystals.
CEMENTATION Binding and cohesion of sediments to form a solid mass.
CHIROPTERA The order of animals comprising the bats.
COMPACTION Consolidation of sediments resulting from the weight of overlying deposits.
CONGLOMERATE Rock containing worn and rounded stones embedded within a finer cementation.
CRUSTACEAN An arthropod of the class Crustacea. An aquatic creature with compound eyes, two pairs of antennae and one pair of mandibles. It is represented by lobsters, crayfish, crabs, shrimp, and the shrimp-like, but much smaller, amphipoda.
CYANOBACTERIA Photosynthetic moneran autotrophs (bacteria), known as bluegreen algae, but including species of many different colors, living in moist or watered sites exposed to sunlight.
DECAY Entire or partial dissolution, deterioration, or decomposition by progressive natural processes.
DIKE A long, narrow and more or less vertical mass of igneous or eruptive rock intruded into a fissure of surrounding older rock.
DISJUNCT Disjoined or separated; as in organisms living in caves hundreds or thousands of miles from like organisms.
DISORIENTATION Confusion concerning relative location and position; loss of sense of direction.
ECOLOGY The branch of biology that studies the interactions of organisms with their physical environment and with each other, and the results of such interactions.
ECOSYSTEM A system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their biotic and abiotic environment.
EPIKARST A highly dissolved land surface consisting of an intricate network of intersecting roofless dissolution-widened fissures, cavities, and tubes dissolved into the carbonate bedrock. Other features include vertical fractures, shafts, spikes, spires and eroded rills of carbonate rock.
EUKARYOTIC Cells with a membrane-bound nucleus and membrane-bound organelles.
EXOSKELETON The outer supporting covering of an invertebrate body; common in arthropods.
EXTINCT No longer existing; died out.
FAULT A break in the continuity of a body of rock, attended by movement along the break.
FLORALTURBATION A disturbance process involving plants that changes the context of the archaeological record and affects interpretations of the locations and conditions of artifacts.
FLOW STONE Smooth sheets of calcite deposited by water flowing down the walls of a cave. Crystals in the deposits grow perpendicular to the flow.
FORMATIONS Either a body of rocks, or stratum, classed as a unit for geologic mapping; or a deposit of calcium carbonate material of various types, shapes and sizes, such as stalactites, or stalagmites.
FUNGI Plants without leaves, flowers, or chlorophyll which usually obtain nutrients through extracellular digestion of dead organic matter. Eukaryotic and multicellular, they act as decomposers in food webs, like bacteria. Examples are mushroomsand molds.
GASTROPOD Asymmetrical mollusks of the class Gastropoda. These invertebrates with spiral shells and heads with one or two pairs of tentacles, include snails, whelks and slugs.
GEOLOGY The science that deals with the physical history of the earth, the rocks of which it is composed and the physical changes which the earth has undergone or is undergoing. Also refers to the geologic features and processes occuring in a given region of the earth.
GLACIER An extended mass of ice originating from a region of perpetual snow, either moving slowly downward from high elevations as mountain-valley glaciers or moving outward from centers of accumulation, as in continental glaciers. Glaciers are immense agents of erosion and landscape modification.
GROUNDWATER Water beneath the surface of the land, consisting largely of surface water that has seeped or permeated downward. May become part of an aquifer, or the source of a spring. Acidic groundwater dissolves calcite in limestone, creating karst.
HABITAT The native environment, or home, of a plant or animal; the kind of place that is natural for the life and growth of an animal or plant.
HETEROTROPHIC Relating to an organism that must feed on organic materials formed by other organisms in order to obtain energy; contrast with autotroph. Includes animals, fungi, and many unicellular organisms.
HIBERNACULA A protective, secure residence, such as a cave or burrow, of an animal that spends time in a dormant condition.
HIBERNATION A period of dormancy or inactivity, varying in length depending on the species, and occurring in dry or cold seasons. Metabolic processes are greatly slowed and body temperatures may drop close to the freezing point.
HOMEOTHERMIC Relating to an organism, such as a bird or mammal, capable of maintaining a stable body temperature independent of the environment.
HUMERUS A bone of the upper arm or limb of an animal.
HYDROLOGY The science dealing with the occurrence, circulation, distribution and properties of the waters of the earth and its atmosphere.
HYPOTHERMIA Life-threatening condition of having a body temperature greatly below normal.
ICE AGE A time of great glacial advance, the last one ending about 10,000 years ago.
IGNEOUS Produced under conditions involving intense heat, as rocks of volcanic origin or rocks crystallized from molten magma.
INTRUSION The forcing of extraneous matter, as molten rock, into some other geologic formation.
INVERTEBRATE An animal lacking a vertebral column, or internal backbone, such as crustaceans, bacteria, plankton, and algae.
ISOSTASY / ISOSTATIC REBOUND Land areas rebounding, or returning to equilibrium, from a period of depression due to an overriding mass of glacial ice, as during the last ice age. Isostatic rebound in southeast Alaska has been found to be anywhere from a few meters to a hundred meters, depending largely on the degree of glaciation at a particular location.
KARST Topography that develops in areas underlain by soluble rocks, primarily limestones. Dissolution of subsurface strata results in areas of well-developed subsurface drainage characterized by sinkholes, collapsed channels, vertical shafts, and caves. The name derived from the Balkan region of Kras, where early karst research was conducted.
KARSTLANDS Lands or regions where karst predominates.
LIMESTONE Stone consisting primarily of calcium carbonate. Exoskeletons of many marine organisms contain calcium carbonate. With time, sea floor accumulation, compaction and cementation, these calcite beds become limestone formations.
LITTORAL Pertaining to the shore of a lake, sea, or ocean.
MACROSCOPIC Generally small, but visible and distinct to the unaided eye. Gastropods are macroscopic organisms.
MARITIME Living, situated, or found near the sea or ocean.
MARMOT Bushy-tailed, stocky rodent of the genus Marmota , common in northern terrestrial regions.
MEGAFAUNA Referring to large animals, such as caribou, bison, bear, and moose.
MICROCLIMATE The climate of a small or confined area, such as a cave, plant community or wooded area.
MICROSCOPIC Organisms, for example, so small as to be invisible or indistinct without the aid of a microscope. Bacteria are microscopic organisms.
MIDDEN A refuse heap; a pile of discarded waste associated with a human settlement; shell midden. Middens are often rich archaeological sources.
MIGRATION Movement of people or animals from one place or region of habitation to another. Examples are the migration of people from Asia to North America or migration of birds south for the winter. Also refers to plate tectonics and the migration of terranes or microplates.
MONERANS Of the kingdom Monera. Prokaryotic bacteria that play an important role as decomposers of organic matter. The most abundant, oldest and smallest organisms in the world; they can survive in many environments that support no other form of life.
MOON MILK A dripstone calcium carbonate deposit or speleothem; accumulates to several feet thick in some southeast Alaska caves, with possible bacterial associations accounting for the depth.
MUSKEG The Alaskan name for a swamp or bog. Characterized by waterlogged soils, impermeable substrate, acidic water and plants such as sphagnum moss and sedges. The acidic water flow from muskegs accelerates development of subsurface karst.
MYCOLOGY The branch of botany dealing with fungi.
NATAL Pertaining to birth. Bears, wolves, and river otters use caves for natal, or birthing, purposes.
OBSIDIAN A volcanic glass similar in composition to granite, usually dark but transparent in thin pieces and having a good conchoidal fracture.
OMNIVORE An animal that consumes both plant and animal foods.
PALEOECOLOGY Study of the ecological relationships prevailing in past geologic ages.
PALEOKARST Karst formations existing for a great period of geologic time. Most caves in southeast Alaska predate the latest glacial advance, with some evidence
showing ages of millions of years.
PALEONTOLOGY The science of the forms of life existing in former geologic periods, as represented by fossil animals and plants.
PASSERINE Birds of the order Passeriformes , with feet adapted for perching. Includes more than half of all bird species, such as dippers, swallows, and thrush species.
PEATLANDS Otherwise known as muskegs, fens, or bogs. Characterized by waterlogged soils, impermeable substrate, acidic water, and plants such as sphagnum moss and sedges. The acidic water flow from peatlands accelerates development of subsurface karst.
PERMEABILITY Pertaining to a rock or soil and its capacity for transmitting a fluid through its pore spaces.
PHOTOSYNTHESIS Synthesis of complex organic materials, especially carbohydrates, from carbon dioxide, water, and inorganic salts, using sunlight as the source of energy and with the aid of a catalyst such as chlorophyll.
POROSITY The volume of pore space in rock or soil, expressed as a percentage of total volume.
PROKARYOTIC Cells lacking a membrane-bound nucleus and membrane-bound organelles; a bacterium or cyanobacterium.
PROTISTS Of the kingdom Protista. Eukaryotic, mostly unicellular organisms, including amoebas, paramecia, and algae.
RADIOCARBON DATING Determination of the age of objects of plant or animal origin by measurement of the radioactivity of their radiocarbon content, which declines at a steady rate over time.
RECHARGE AREA Surface areas that supply water to subsurface karst systems.
REFUGIA / REFUGIUM A place, or places, free or safe from glacial advance, such as a nunatak, or exposed knob of bedrock surrounded by ice.
RELICTUAL Referring to an organism living in an environment different from that which is, or was, typical for it. For example, a population that can no longer live in the surface world due to climatic changes but can persist in more stable cave conditions.
RILL A long, narrow trench; a feature of epikarst terrain.
ROOKERY A colony, or breeding place, most commonly of birds, such as cormorants, pigeon guillemots, murres, and puffins.
SILL An intrusive sheet of igneous rock forced, usually horizontally, between layers of older surrounding rock strata.
SINKHOLE A relatively shallow bowl- or funnel-shaped depressions ranging in diameter from a few feet to more than 3,000 feet. Generally formed by dissolution of and subsequent settlement of bedrock to form a depression, or collapse of shallow cave roofs to form a depression.
SOLUTION The process of chemical weathering by which rock material is dissolved and removed, as in the formation of karst features.
SPELEOGEN Relief features on the walls, ceiling and/or floor of a cave that are part of the surrounding bedroom.
SPELEOLOGY The exploration and study of caves.
SPELEOTHEM Any natural mineral formation or deposit occurring in a cave, including flowstone, helictites, soda straws, and moon milk.
SPRING A surface seepage of groundwater; common in karstlands.
SUBSTRATE Underlying stratum or layer, as in bedrock beneath soil.
SUBTERRANEAN Subsurface; below ground level.
STALACTITE Calcium carbonate formation shaped like an icicle, often hanging from the roof of a cave, formed by the dripping of percolating calcareous water.
STALAGMITE Calcium carbonate formation resembling an inverted stalactite, formed on the floor of a cave by the dripping of percolating calcareous water.
STROMATOLITE Reef formation composed of mats of photosynthetic bacteria and sediments.
TECTONIC Relating to forces or conditions within the earth that cause movements of the crust such as earthquakes, folds, or faults. Tectonic forces have caused of the accretion of exotic terranes that comprise Southeast Alaska today.
TECTONIC PLATE Large section of the earth's crust, either oceanic or continental, that is in motion due to forces within the earth. Tectonic activity in Alaska is due to interaction between the Pacific plate, and the North American plate.
TERRANE A rock formation or continental plate fragment of lesser density which rides upon an oceanic plate of greater density. It may either join with other fragments,merge with a microplate, or finally dock with a major continental plate. The terranes of southeast Alaska have moved from distant regions and are called exotic terranes.
TERRESTRIAL Pertaining to earth or land, as opposed to water or air; things living or growing on, or in, the ground.
THEORY An hypothesis supported to some extent by evidence but not conclusively proven or accepted as a law.
TOPOGRAPHY Physical features of a region, especially the relief and contours of the land.
TROGLOXENE Cave visitor: uses cave habitat for specific purposes, on a sporadic basis, and exhibits no cave-related adaptations.
TROGLOPHILE Cave lovers: have a strong affinity for the dark, moist, and cool conditions of cave interiors and sometimes show changes in their anatomy, physiology, or behavior.
TROGLOBITE Cave dwellers: spend their entire life cycles in the dark zones of caves and exhibit a variety of adaptations to interior cave conditions.
VERTEBRATE An animal having an internal backbone, or spinal column, such as mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.
WATERSHED The region drained by a river system; a drainage basin.
WATER TABLE The depth below which the ground is saturated with water; the level of groundwater.
References for glossary
1. Karst and Cave Resource Significance Assessment for Ketchikan Area, Tongass National
Forest , Alaska . Ozark Underground Laboratory, Protem , Missouri , 1993.
2. Oxford American Dictionary . Oxford University Press Inc., New York , 1980.
3. Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language . Portland House,
New York , 1989.
4. Anthony, Leo Mark, and A. Tom Tunley: Introductory Geography and Geology of Alaska . Polar Publishing, Anchorage , 1976.
5. Baichtal, James F., and Douglas N. Swanston: Karst Landscapes and Associated Resources: A Resource Assessment . U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Portland , 1996.
6. Curtis, Helena, and N. Sue Barnes: Biology (5th ed.). Worth Publishers, New York , 1989.
7. Sager, Robert F., and David M. Helgren: World Geography Today . Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., Austin , 1997.
USDA Forest Service - Tongass National Forest Accessibility Statement
Last Modified: July 11, 2007