Glossary
- Amphipod—A crustacean of the order Amphipod
including the sand fleas and beach hoppers. There are 3,000 species of amphipods.
- Anadromous—Migrating from sea water into
fresh water to spawn, as salmon or shad.
- Brackish—Salty, but less so than sea water.
- Calcium carbonate—CACO3, a widely distributed
compound occurring in nature as limestone and marble as well as being a component
of invertebrate exoskeletons.
- Crustacean—Animals that wear a segmented
shell and have segmented legs are arthropods, such as insects and crustaceans.
Crustaceans are arthropods that live in the water and breathe by gills, such
as lobsters, barnacles, crabs, and shrimps.
- Detritus—Decomposed plant and animal matter
that has been worked to sediment size through the action of water and sand.
- Diatoms—One-celled algae with cell walls
of silica that make up the first links in aquatic food chains.
- Ebb tide—The movement of the tidal current
away from shore; a decrease in the height of the tide.
- Ecosystem—A biological community existing
in a specific physical environment.
- Epiphyte—A plant growing on another plant
such as Spanish moss.
- Estuary—Brackish-water areas influenced by
the tides and located where the mouth of a river meets the sea.
- Habitat—Where an animal lives; its natural
home.
- Halophyte—A plant that can tolerate salty
soils.
- Hammock—An island in a marsh.
- Inlet—An opening through which ocean waters
enter and leave an enclosed body of water, such as a sound, bay, or marsh.
- Interstitial—Pertaining to the organisms
that live between sand grains or in other minute spaces.
- Intertidal zone—The zone along the shore
between high and low tide marks.
- Littoral—Pertaining to the seashore, especially
the intertidal area.
- Neap tide—Lowest range of the tide, occurring
at the first and last quarter of the moon.
- Niche—The place where an organism lives and
the activities it carries out.
- Pelagic—The division of the ocean that includes
the whole mass of water; it is divided into the neritic zone (water depth
0–600 feet) and the oceanic zone (water deeper than 600 feet).
- Plankton—Aquatic organisms that float at
the mercy of the currents or have limited swimming abilities.
- ppt—Parts per thousand.
- Salt marsh—An area of soft, wet land periodically
flooded by salt water.
- Spring tide—Tide of maximum range occurring
at the new and full moon.
- Zooplankton—Animal plankton.
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