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Wordlist

adaptation	A change in the way an organism works or in its shape or behaviour which helps the plant or animal to survive in its surroundings.
additions	Things added on later.
alloy	A mixture of metals, or metals mixed with non-metals
AONB	Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: a precious landscape whose distinctive character and natural beauty are so outstanding that it is in the nation's interest to safeguard them.
aquatic	Relating to water. Plants or animals that live in or near water are called aquatic plants or aquatic animals.
archaeology	The study of past human lives and activities by finding and looking at evidence, such as graves, buildings, tools, and pottery.
artefact	Any object used, shaped or made by humans for example, a flint tool, pottery, coins.
arthropods	This is a big group of invertebrate animals. They all have jointed legs. It includes insects, crustaceans and arachnids (spiders).
basilica	A Roman building or early Christian church
beak	The hard mouth parts of a bird. The upper jaw is called the maxilla; the lower jaw is called a mandible. Sometimes called the ‘bill’ rather than the beak.
Beaufort Scale	This is a scale to help sailors work out how strong the wind is by looking at the surface of the sea. It was developed in 1805 by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort. There is now also a version for use on land. It goes from Force 0 to Force 12. Force 8 is a gale.
biodiversity	The variety of life on our planet: the abundance of different species, their genetic composition, and the natural communities, ecosystems, and landscapes in which they occur.
brackish	Water that is saline but not as salty as seawater
briquetage	Brickwork
burrows	Animals such as rabbits and water voles dig holes or tunnels in the ground to make a safe place to live or hide. These are called burrows.
butchering	Cutting up animals for meat
cargo	Goods that are carried by sea or land.
carnivore	An animal that feeds mainly by eating other animals.
carr	An area of wet land with bushes.
causeway	A raised path across a wet area.
channel	The deep (and often narrow) part of a stream, or estuary through which the main current flows providing the best passage for vessels.
chipped flint	A flint (tool) with an edge, sharpened by hitting the edge to remove small chips of flint.
coastal squeeze	Areas of saltmarsh or mudflat become trapped between hard sea defences and rising sea levels. Instead of moving inland as they would naturally do, they become smaller.
constructions	Things that are built.
coppice wood	Woodland in which areas of trees are cut down in turn to provide a supply of small poles.
copse	Another word for coppice wood.
corpse	Dead body.
crustacean	Crustaceans are animals with jointed legs (arthropods) and hard shells. They include crabs, lobsters and barnacles.
decomposer	A plant, animal or micro-organism that feeds on the bodies of dead, rotting organisms and their waste and converts the matter back into nutrients that can be used by plants growing in the soil. Decomposers include fungi, mushrooms, bacteria, worms, and insects such as millipedes.
deposition	Deposition, also known as sedimentation, is the process whereby material is added to a landform. Wind, water, or ice create a sediment deposit by laying down material that has been eroded and transported from another place.
designation	Various laws and policies protect special places or sites. If a site is designated then it is recognised as being protected under the relevant legislation or policy.
dissection	The cutting up of something (to look at what is inside).
Doomsday Book	A record of the villages and landowners of England, written in 1086.
ecology	The study of the ways that living things interact with each other and with their environment.
encaustic tiles	Tiles patterned using a stamp, then colours were applied to show up the pattern, and the tiles were baked.
enclosure	An area closed in by a barrier, such as a fence.
environment	All of the surroundings and conditions that affect living things, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans and their interrelation
erosion	A process that wears the earth's surface away, causing soil to move from one place to another. Erosion occurs naturally from wind, water, and ice but human activities can make it worse
estuary	A body of water that is partly enclosed by land but is still connected to the open sea. Usually freshwater e.g. from a river flows into the estuary and seawater flows in and out with the tide. The two waters meet and mix.
evaporation	The changing of a liquid (or solid) to vapour (gas) when heat is applied. When salt water is heated, the pure water turns to vapour and the salt is left behind.
evidence	Facts, information or objects that indicate whether or not something is true.
exported	Sent out of the country
food chain	A series of plants and animals each depending on the next for food. A food chain shows who eats what! Energy is transferred from one organism to another through the food chain.
food web	The connections between every organism in a place, showing what they eat and are in turn eaten by. Food chains link together in a food web.
gabions	Steel wire mesh cages filled with stones that are often stacked and used to reduce erosion along steep slopes or for coastal defences.
geological	To do with the Earth, e.g.: rocks and soils
glacier	A slow moving mass of ice.
global warming	An average increase in the Earth's temperature, resulting in climate change such as different rainfall patterns, a rise in sea level, and a wide range of impacts on plants, wildlife, and humans. An increase in greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, is thought to be a cause of global warming.
goods	Things that are for sale
grazing	This is where only part of a plant is eaten and it can still continue to live and grow. Sheep and cattle graze on the grass in fields.
greenhouse effect	Gases in the air such as carbon dioxide and methane allow heat from the sun to reach the earth’s surface, but stop it leaving again. If more heat is trapped, the earth will warm up. “Greenhouse gases," such as carbon dioxide are released into the air from burning gas, oil, coal, wood and other resources.
groynes	Low walls built perpendicular to a shoreline to trap sediment, such as sand, drifting along the shore. Groynes are usually made of wood, concrete or piles of large rocks.
habitat	The place or environment where a plant or animal naturally or normally lives and grows.
harbour	Protected stretch of water where vessels may safely anchor or tie up to the shore. People and goods can be transferred from sea to shore or the other way round. Harbours can be very busy places with passengers, cargoes and fishermen setting sail and returning. However some harbours are very quiet.
hearth	The floor of a fireplace.
herbivore	An animal that feeds mainly on plants
illegal	Against the law
imported	Brought into the country
incubate	Keeping eggs or embryos in the right conditions so that they can grow and develop. Birds to sit on their eggs keeping them warm until they hatch. Turtles and snakes will often bury their eggs to incubate underground by themselves.
insect	Insects are animals with jointed legs (arthropods) and external ‘skeletons’. They have 6 legs, e.g. flies, beetles and butterflies.
interdependence	The idea that everything in nature is connected to everything else; that plants and animals cannot survive without each other as they all have an effect on the environment in which they live as well as providing food for each other.
intertidal	The area of shore that is covered at high tide and uncovered at low tide. Also called the littoral zone.
invertebrate	An animal without a backbone. E.g. worms, molluscs, crustaceans, insects and spiders
jetty	A wall or structure built out from the shore, which might protect a harbour or reduce currents.
kiln	An oven for heating objects to high temperatures, such as clay pots.
knots	A unit for measuring speed. A boat going at one knot would travel one nautical mile in an hour. 1 knot = 1.85 km/hour. There is a speed limit of 8 knots within Chichester Harbour. Knots are also things you tie in string or rope!
lagoon	An inland sea
lock	A lock is a device that lifts or lowers boats from one water level to another. Chichester marina has a lock so that boats go in or out even when the tide is high or low.
longshore drift	The process in which sediment is moved along a beach by waves that travel at an angle to the shore, or by tidal, wind-driven, or other currents.
managed realignment	Changing the coastline to adjust to the rise in sea level. This might involve removing old sea defences and building new ones further inland or allowing pieces of land to revert back from farmland to mudflat or saltmarsh by opening up sea defences.
marine	Associated with the sea. For example, a marine snail lives in the sea.
masonry	Stone or brickwork, used in building.
medieval	From the middle ages, around 1000 to 1500 AD
micro organism	An organism that is so small that it can be seen only under a microscope. Microorganisms include algae, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses.
migration	The movement of an animal from one region to another, usually when the seasons change. With birds, this usually involves the movement of a species between a breeding area and a wintering ground that might be a long way apart.
mollusc	Molluscs have no backbone. They have soft bodies and a shell, which may be inside (slug, octopus or cuttlefish) or outside their bodies (snails, cockles, oysters)
monastery	A place where monks live a holy life of prayer to God.
moorings	Chains or piles (posts) fixed to the bottom of the sea or water for boats to tie on to so they do not drift away. The chains are marked by having a buoy attached that floats on the surface.
navigation marks	These are posts or buoys visible above the water marking underwater features such as the position of channels or hazards such as rocks or mud banks. They help sailors find their way safely around the harbour and coast.
occupation	1) The time that people live somewhere, taking up space. E.g. “seasonal occupation” means living somewhere for part of the year. 2) The job someone does e.g. “seasonal occupation” as a fruit picker
pasture	An area where animals can eat grass
peasants	The poor, working people in the countryside
peninsula	Land sticking out into a sea or lake that is only joined to the mainland by a narrow strip of land.
permeable	A material that allows water to penetrate through it. Some rock layers, such as chalk, are permeable but water cannot travel through impermeable layers such as clay.
pollinate	To transfer pollen from the flower of one plant to another plant of the same species. The pollen fertilizes the flower and it can then develop into a fruit or seed. Bees and other insects are important plant pollinators
pontoon	A pontoon is a floating structure sticking out from the shore. It allows people to get to deep water without getting their feet wet!
rock berm	An embankment built of rock used to prevent inflow or outflow of material from an area.
saline	Salty water, such as seawater or the water where sea and freshwater meet and mix.
sand dune	A hill of sand heaped up by the wind.
sea defences	Any structures or devices used to prevent the sea from flooding the land or buildings.
seasonal	To do with the seasons, e.g.; Winter. Not all year round.
settlement	A place where a group of people live
shaft	The long narrow pole that is the handle of an axe, or the stick part of an arrow.
shingle	Any rock fragments (small stones or pebbles) bigger than 2mm in diameter are classified as shingle. Unlike sand, shingle is not moved by the wind but by waves.
silt	Mud, clay or leaves that collect at the bottom of a river, stream or lake.
sluice gate	A gate fitted to a channel of water to control the flow.
species	A group of organisms that share similar characteristics and can interbreed with one another to produce fertile offspring
stabilise	Become more steady, to change less.
thatch	A house roof made from plant stems (such as reeds) held in place by ropes and sticks.
timber	Wood, or made from wood
trade	Buying and selling
vegetation	plants
vertebrate	An animal with a backbone. Amphibians (e.g. frogs) Fish, birds, reptiles (e.g. snakes) and mammals are all vertebrates
wadeway	A raised path across a watery area