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| Formation produced by massive colonies containing billions of tiny coral animals, called polyps, that secrete a stony substance around themselves for protection. When the corals die, their enpty outer sketletons form layers and cause the reef to grow. They are found in the coastal zones of warm tropical and subtropical oceans. |
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| They slowly build reefs by secreting a protective crust of limestone around their soft bodies |
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| occurs when a coral becomes stressed and expel most of its colorful algae |
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| Small, drifting plants, mostly algae and bacteria, found in aquatic ecosystems. |
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| Animal plankton. Small floating herbivores that feed on plant plankton. |
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| Strongly swimming organisms found in aquatic systems. |
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| Bottom-dwelling organisms |
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Organism that digests parts of dead organisms and cast off frgagments and wastes of living organisms by breaking down the complex organic molecules in those materials into simpler inorganic compounds and then absorbing the soluble nutrients. Producers return most of these chemicals to the soil and water for reuse. Decomposers consist of various bacteria and fungi. |
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Lighted upper zone where photosynthesis occurs mostly by phytoplankton, nutrient levels are low and levels of dissolved oxygen are high. (large fast, moving predatory fish such as swordfish, sharks, and bluedin tuna populate this zone.) |
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| Dimly lit middle zone that does not contain photosynthesizing producers because of a lack of sunlight. (various types of zooplankton and smaller fish, many of which migrate to feed on the surface at night, populate this zone.) |
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| Dark lower zone that is very cold, has little dissolved oxygen and has enough nutrients on the ocean floor to support about 98% of species living in the ocean. |
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| Warm, nutrient-rich, shallow part of the ocean that extends from the high-tide mark on land to the edge of a shelflike extension of continental land masses (continental shelf) |
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Partially enclosed coastal area at the mouth of a river where its fresh water, carrying fertuke silt and runoff from the land, mixes with salty sea water |
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| Land along a coastline, extending inland from an estuary, that is covered with salt water all or part of the year. |
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| swamps found on the coastlines in warm tropical climates. They are dominated by mangrove trees, any of about 55 species of trees and shrubbs that can live partly submerged in the salty environment of coastal swamps. |
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| Area of shoreline between low and high tides. |
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| Long, thin, low offshore islands of sediment that generally run parallel to the shore along some coasts |
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| Part of an ocean that is beyond the continental shelf |
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| Aquatic systems where water with a dissolved salt concentration of less that 1% by volume accumulates on or flows through the surfaces of terrestrial biomes. (ex. standing bodies of fresh water sudh as lakes, ponds, and inland wetlands and flowing systems such as streams and rivers) |
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| large natural body of standing fresh water formed when watre from precipitation, land runoff, or groundwater flow fills a depression in the earth created glaciation, earth movement, volcanic activity, or a giant meteorite. |
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| Consists of the shallow sunlit waters near the shore to the depth at which rooted plants stop growing |
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| the open, sunlit water surface layer away from the shore that extends to the depth penetrated by sunlight. As the main photosynthetic body of the lake, it produces the food and oxygen that support most of the lake's consumers. |
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| the deep, open water where it is too dark for photosynthesiss. |
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| at the bottom of the lake. It is inhabited mostly by organisms that tolerate cool temperature and low oxygen levels. |
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| Lake with a low supply of plant nutrients |
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| Lake with a large or excessive supply of plant nutrients, mostly nitrates and phosphates. |
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| Overnourishment of aquatic ecosystems with plant nutrients because of human activities such as agriculture, urbanization and discharges from industrial plants and sewage treatment plants. |
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| an upper layer of warm water with high levels of dissolved oxygen. |
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| where the water temperature changes rapidly with depth and with moderate levels of dissolved oxygen |
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| a lower layer of colder, dense water, usually with a lower concentration of dissolved oxygen because it is not exposed to the atmosphere. During the summer the thermociline acts as a barrier preventing the transfer of nutrients and dissolved oxygen between the epilimnion and hypolimnion. |
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| precipitation that does not infiltrate the ground or return to the atmosphere by evaporation or transpiration. |
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| fresh water from precipitation and melting ice that flows on the earth's surface into nearby streams, lakes, wetlands and reservoirs. |
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| land aread that delivers water, sediment and dissolves substances via small streams to a major stream. |
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| headwater or mountain highand streams of cold, clear water rush over waterfals and rapids. |
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| the headwater streams merge to form wider, deeper streams that flow down gentler slopes with fewer obstacles. |
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| streams join into wider and deeper rivers that meander across broad, flat valleys. |
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| depressions carves out by glaciers |
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| dominated by trees and shrubs? |
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| lands covered with fresh water all or part of the time and located away from coastal areas. |
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| underwater or soggy for only a short time each year |
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