Amphipod—A crustacean of the order
Amphipoda, including the sand fleas and beach hoppers. There are 3,000 species
of amphipods.
Anadromous—Moving from seawater into fresh water
to spawn, as salmon or striped
bass.
Arthropod—Invertebrate animals belonging to the phylum
Arthropoda, with jointed legs, a segmented body, and an exoskeleton. Arthropods
include insects, crustaceans, and arachnids.
Bivalve—Mollusks belonging
to the class Bivalvia, with two-part hinged shells, including mussels and clams.
Benthos—Collectively,
those plants and animals, usually invertebrates, living on or near the bottom
of the bay or ocean (benthic, adj.).
Biomass—The quantity of living
organisms in a particular area.
Bog—A wetland characterized by
acidic peat soil formed from decaying mosses.
Brackish—Salty, but
less so than seawater.
Bryozoan—Any member of the phylum Bryozoa,
which consists of tiny moss-like water animals that live in colonies.
Crustaceans—Arthropods
that live in the water and breathe by gills, such as lobsters, barnacles, crabs,
and shrimps.
Copepod—A small, sometimes parasitic, crustacean belonging
to the class Copepoda.
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. Diatoms make up the first links in the aquatic
food chain.
Ecosystem—A biological community existing in a specific
physical environment.
Emergent—A plant that grows directly in the
water and stays erect to emerge from the water surface, regardless of the water
level.
Estuary—A partially enclosed area where the fresh water
of rivers mixes with tidal salt water.
Euryhaline—Able to live
in waters with a wide variation in salinity.
Exoskeleton—An external
skeleton, such as the shell of a mollusk or arthropod.
Habitat—Where
an animal or plant lives; its natural home.
Hummock—A rise of fertile,
densely wooded land that is higher than a surrounding marsh.
Inlet—An
opening through which ocean waters enter and leave an enclosed body of water,
such as a sound, bay, or marsh.
Intertidal zone—The zone along
the shore between high and low tide marks.
Littoral—Pertaining
to the seashore, especially the intertidal area.
Marsh—Low, wet
land that is covered by water at least part of the time and supports grasses rather
than trees.
Neap tide—Lowest range of the tide, occurring at the
first and last quarter of the moon.
Pelagic—Pertaining to the open
waters of the ocean, as distinguished from the benthic regions.
Phytoplankton—Plant
plankton.
Plankton—Aquatic plant life that floats at the mercy
of the currents or has limited swimming abilities.
SAV—The commonly
used acronym for submerged aquatic vegetation.
Sessile—Attached
permanently, immobile.
Spring tide—Tide of maximum range, occurring
at the new and full moon.
Stenohaline—Able to live only in waters
with little variation in salinity.
Substrate—The foundation that
lies beneath and supports an organism.
Swamp—Spongy or boggy ground
that is covered with water at least part of the time and supports the growth of
shrubs and trees.
Thigmotropic—Pertaining to the orientation some
living things have toward objects, such as the orientation many fish have toward
rocks, reefs, sunken ships, and other structure.
