Glossary

A eutroph is an organism that lives in habitats having high levels of nutrients, particularly nitrogen and phosphorus. Eutroph is derived from the Greek eutrophos, meaning "well nourished".

Eutrophic, and the related terms oligotrophic and mesotrophic, refer to the nutrient status of freshwater habitats. That is, eutrophic refers to high nutrient lakes and streams, often from the inflow of nutrients from human sources such as agriculture or pollutants in the watershed.

Note that terms with the ending “phentic” (oligotraphentic, oligo-mesotraphentic, mesotraphentic, eutraphentic, hypereutraphentic, etc.) have a European origin that gained wide use following Van Dam (1994). This usage is less common in North America. In the European sense, the terms applied to species. For example, Achnanthidium crassum is oligotraphentic and it lives in oligotrophic streams.