Final Study Guide Flashcards
Infauna
Live in substrate
Littoral Zone
Intertidal zone:
High tide mark to low tide mark; smallest space; most researched
Meiofauna
Live between grains of sand
Supratidal (swash)
Above tides; splash and spray only
Upper intertidal
Covered during highest tides
Middle intertidal
50% exposure, between high and low tides
Lower intertidal
Covered except at lowest tides
Subtidal (sublittoral)
Always covered
Level of disturbance leads to highest level of biodiversity
Intermediate disturbance
Stenohaline
Species that tolerate narrow ranges of salinities
Brackish
Water of intermediate salinity
Mangal
Dense forest of mangroves
Pneumatophore
Unbranched extensions of roots that grow up from oxygen poor mud
Propagule
Seedlings that drop from branches; attached to tree and germinate
Drowned river valleys/coastal plains
An estuary type:
Sea level rose due to melting ice, invaded lowlands
Bar-built estuary
Accumulation of sediment into sandbars, separates ocean from fresh water
Tectonic estuary
The land sank into water
Fjords
(Estuary type) Partially submerged valleys when sea level rose that rivers now flow into
Open water
Estuary characteristic
Important nursery zone; 90% of commercial catch larvae come from this
Mudflat
Estuary characteristic
Substrate exposed at low tide
Salt marsh
Estuary characteristic
Temperate to subarctic regions; grassy areas bordering mudflats; flooded at high tide
Mangroves
Previously covered 75% of all sheltered tropic areas; protects against erosion
Other names for an estuary
Lagoon, slough, bay, fjord, river delta
Red mangrove genus
Rhizophora