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Erosion - The breakdown and transportation of materials such as rock or sand by some moving agent such as water, ice, or wind.
Estuary - Literally, a place where a river meets the sea. Not to be confused with Lagoon. An estuary is to a lagoon as a river is to a lake. An estuary has several characteristics that distinguish it from a lagoon:
1. Rather than formed by marine actions such as the old shorelines that confine the Indian River Lagoon system, estuaries are generally formed in river valleys drowned by rising sea level or subsiding (sinking) land.
2. Estuaries are dominated by Astronomical Tides rather than by Meteorological Tides as in the Indian River Lagoon.
3. Estuary channels are characterized by a two-way flow, the regular flow of the river toward the ocean, and a tidal flow during high tides in the opposite direction.
4. A salinity Gradient running the distance from sea water at the mouth at 35 ‰ (parts per thousand) salinity to essentially 0 ‰ beyond the effects of the highest tide.
Evolution - Change through time. The scientific definition for biologists is “a change in gene frequency over time”. A more general definition is a change in the genetic makeup of a population that leads to changes in the members of that population.
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