Estuaries Flashcards
estuary
a semi-enclosed body of water that has a free connection with the open sea and within which seawater is diluted measurably with freshwater that is derived from land drainage such as a river
regions of the estuary
lower-free connection with open sea, middle-exposure to wide range of salinities, lots of tidal mixing, upper-very low salinity but experiences tides
flocculation
particles clump and sink, ionically bound metals also sink, also due to slower flows.high flux of DOC/POC to sediments, detrital food web, creation of mudflat habitats, anoxia due to decomposition, ion substitution/desorption of toxic heavy metals
stenohaline
marine organisms able to tolerate only a minimal variation in salinity
euryhaline
marine organisms able to tolerate a wide range of salinity variation
anadromy
spends most of life feeding in the open ocean but migrates to spawn in freshwater
catadromy
spawns in seawater but feeds and spends most of life in estuarine or fresh water
osmoregulator
an organism that regulates the concentration of dissolved ions in its body fluids irrespective of changes in the external medium
osmoconformer
an organism whose body fluids change directly with a change in the concentrations of dissolved ions in the external medium
hypoxia
presence of low concentrations of oxygen in the water that is stressful to marine organisms
allochthonous
not from the place
autochthonus
from that place
retention time
the time a unit of water remains in a water body such as an estuary before being mixed into an outside water body such as the shelf
turnover time
the number of phases for the water to be stratified. how long for the bivalves to filter the body of water. if it is longer than retention time….
