Glossary

Abiotic: non-living factors in an environment.

Algae: often called ‘seaweed’ but not true weeds; an organism that photosynthesises but scientists have not agreed whether or not it is a true plant.

Benthic: of the bottom; benthic animals live on the sea floor.

Biodiversity: the variability among living organisms. It incorporates not only the number of species but the diversity within them from the gene level, through species and the ecosystems in which they live.

Biota: all the living things in a given area.

Biotic: living factors in an environment.

Competition: animals and plants compete against each other for resources such as space and food

Diversity: the total number of species found in an assemblage, community or area.

Endemic: species only found in one particular area, e.g. on an island, in one river, one region (e.g. southern Australia), etc.

Fauna: animal life.

Flora: plant life.

Grazer: an animal that eats plant matter by scraping it off rocks, e.g. chiton.

Intertidal: the area between the highest high tide and the lowest low tide.

Macroalgae: algae that are easily visible compared to microalgae, which require a microscope for viewing.

Organism: any living thing.

Pelagic: of the open seas or oceans; living or growing at or near the surface of the ocean, far from land.

Plankton: microscopic animals (zooplankton) and plants (phytoplankton) that live free- swimming in the ocean; includes the thousands of larval forms of many larger marine animals.

Quadrat: an ecological survey method using an enclosed shape, commonly a square, to sample a particular environment. A grid system can be included inside the square to aid in sampling.

Sessile: permanently attached to something such as a rock, jetty pylon or other non-moving object.

Spawning: some marine animals such as sea stars, urchins, sea squirts and others reproduce by putting their eggs and sperm into the water where some of them will meet up.

Sublittoral: the area of the earth’s surface that is permanently submerged underwater between the low tide line and the edge of the continental shelf (approximately 200 m deep).

Substrate: the surface to which an organism is attached or upon which it grows; an underlying base or layer, e.g. the substrate of a temperate reef is rock.

Subtidal: permanently underwater.

Suspension feeders/filter feeders: aquatic animals that literally filter the water, they either allow water to flow through them (sponges) or they actively pump water through their bodies (sea squirts, bivalves) and filter out all the tiny biological particles they wish to eat, usually plankton.

Taxa: in classification, this word refers to the groups used at different levels of the taxonomic system, e.g. order, class, family, genus, species, etc. [Plural; singular is ‘taxon’.]

Transect: an ecological sampling method that uses a line, typically ten metres or more in length.

Topography: the study and mapping of the features of land (e.g. mountains, rivers or the sea floor); or detailed study and description of the shape features of any object.

Turbidity: the murkiness of water; specifically the amount of particulate matter creating the murk.

Upwelling: cold, deep ocean water runs into and up the side of a continental slope and literally wells up; upwellings often create areas of very cold water in an area where the water would normally be warmer, but they are valuable for bringing many nutrients into often low nutrient areas.