Glossary: Pasture and Riparian Management

These terms may help you make more accurate assessments when completing the Pasture and Riparian Management Fact/Worksheet. They may also help clarify some of the terms used.

Available water capacity: The capacity of the soil to store water available for plant use, usually expressed in linear depths of water per unit depth of soil. Commonly defined as the difference between the percentage of soil water at field capacity and the percentage at wilting point.

Eutrophication: A means of aging of lakes whereby aquatic plants are abundant and waters are deficient in oxygen. The process is usually accelerated by enrichment of waters with surface runoff containing nitrogen and phosphorus.

Evaporation: The act or process by which a liquid is converted or changed into a vapor.

Evapotranspiration: Loss of water from the soil both by evaporation and by transpiration from the plants in the soil.

Field capacity: The percentage of water remaining in a soil two or three days after having been saturated and after free drainage has practically ceased.

Ground-water recharge: The addition of water to the saturated zone in a ground-water system.

Infiltration rate: A soil characteristic determining or describing the maximim rate at which water can enter soil under specified conditions, including the presence of an excess of water. Soils having clayey surface textures would have a slow rate whereas those having sandy surface textures would have a high infiltration rate.

Irrigation water management: The use and management of irrigation water where the quantity of water used for each irrigation is determined by the available water capacity of the soil and need for the crop, and where the water is applied at a rate and in such a manner that the crop can use it efficiently and significant erosion does not occur.

Percolation (soil water): The downward movement of water through the soil. Water would move slowly through clayey soils and quickly through sandy soils.

Riparian area: Areas adjacent to creeks, streams, and rivers where vegetation is strongly influenced by the presence of water.

Transpiration: The act or process whereby plants and animals give off vapor, containing waste products, through the pores of the skin or the stomata of plant tissue.

Wilting point: The moisture content of soil, on an oven-dry basis, at which plants (specifically sunflower plants) wilt and fail to recover their turgidity when placed in a dark humid atmosphere.