Zones
The zone near the shore that contains shallow, sunlit waters.
What is the littoral zone?
These are areas of low-lying wetland that do not support the growth of trees.
What are marshes?
Brown sand is made from this.
What is eroded granite?
It's the amount of dissolved salt in the water.
What is salinity?
These are strong swimmers and consumers.
What are nekton?
This zone is directly below the limnetic zone and is aphotic.
What is the profundal zone.
These are wetlands that do support trees and dense shrubs.
What are swamps?
These are coastal wetlands that are regularly flooded by tides, and dominated by herbs, grasses, and shrubs.
What are salt marshes?
The cloudiness of the water.
What is turbidity?
Bottom-dwellers that either anchor themselves to bottom structures or walk along the seafloor.
What are benthos?
This is the base of food webs in the benthic zone.
What is detritus?
The characteristic of bogs that slows down decomposition significantly.
What is the acidity?
These are a form of plankton that have a mutualistic relationship with algae, whose skeletons form reefs.
What are coral polyps?
Another name for standing water.
What is lentic?
These are animal-like, tiny and microscopic, including organisms like single-celled protozoa or jellyfish.
What is zooplankton?
This type of lake is very low in nutrients, limiting plankton populations and leaving the water very clear.
What is oligotrophic?
These are bodies of water partially-enclosed within deltas where seawater mixes with freshwater.
What are estuaries?
The open ocean is sometimes referred to as this due to the relative lack of life.
What is a “marine desert”?
Another name for turbulent water.
What is lotic?
The shower of organic material that falls from the open water into the abyssal plain.
What is marine snow?
This river zone is characterized by high oxygen content, low nutrient levels and cold water temperature.
What is the source?
The three services wetlands provide.
What are support biodiversity, protect against flooding, and trap pollutants?
This zone receives some sunlight, but not enough for photosynthesis.
What is the dysphotic zone?
This is formed when fresh and salt water mix.
What is brackish water?
The process by which some organisms use minerals like hydrogen sulfide released from hydrothermal vents as a source of energy.
What is chemosynthesis?