Aquatic Ecosystems
Terms
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- Plankton
- tiny, free-floating, weakly swimming organisms that occur in aquatic enviornments(p107)
- Zooplankton
- tiny animals that form part of the plankton(107)
- Estuary
- Wetlands formed where rivers meet the ocean(p108)
- Mangrove Swamp
- coastal wetland dominated by mangroves, salt-tolerant woody plants(p108)
- Photic zone
- well lit upper layer of the oceans
- zonation
- prominent horizontal banding of organisms that live in a particular habitat(p110)
- Kelp forest
- coastal ocean community named for its dominant organism-kelp(p110)
- Benthos
- organisms that live attached to or near the ocean floor(p112)
- Phytoplankton
- Population of algae and other small, photosynthetic organisms found near the surface of the ocean and forming part of plankton
- Wetland
- ecosystem in which water either covers the soil, or is present at or near the surface of the soil for at least part of the year(p107)
- Detritus
- Particals of organic material that provide food for organisms at the base of an estuary's food web(p108)
- Salt marsh
- Temperate-zone estuary dominated by salt-tolerant grasses above the low-tide line and by seagrasses under water(p108)
- Aphotic zone
- Permanently dark layer of the oceans below the photic zone(p109)
- Coastal ocean
- marine zone that extends from the low-tide mark to the end of the continental shelf(p110)
- Coral Reef
- diverse and productive environment named for the coral animals that makes up its primary structure(p111)