Definition: Living in the fluid medium (water or air) but unable to maintain their position or distribution independently of the movement of the water/air mass (adapted from Lincoln et al., 1998).
Definition: aquatic organisms that construct and inhabit simple unbranched vertical shafts with only one opening to the surface. These are primarily above-sediment filter-feeders, surface deposit-feeders, and subsurface deposit-feeders (head-down, conveyor-belt feeders)
Definition: aquatic organisms that construct and inhabit simple unbranched vertical shafts with only one opening to the surface. These are primarily above-sediment filter-feeders, surface deposit-feeders, and subsurface deposit-feeders (head-down, conveyor-belt feeders)
Definition: aquatic organisms that construct and inhabit simple unbranched vertical shafts with only one opening to the surface. These are primarily above-sediment filter-feeders, surface deposit-feeders, and subsurface deposit-feeders (head-down, conveyor-belt feeders)
Definition: aquatic organisms that construct and inhabit simple unbranched vertical shafts with only one opening to the surface. These are primarily above-sediment filter-feeders, surface deposit-feeders, and subsurface deposit-feeders (head-down, conveyor-belt feeders)
Definition: Upward conveyors are vertically oriented species that typically feed head-down at depth in the sediment. Vertically oriented head-down feeders actively select and ingest particles at the deeper sediments and egest these non-locally as faeces in the sediment surface
Definition: Whale fall is the term used for a whale carcass that has fallen to the ocean floor. When a whale dies in shallow water, its carcass is typically devoured by scavengers over a relatively short period of time: within several months. However, in deeper water (depths of 2,000 m/6,600 ft or greater), fewer scavenger species exist, and the carcass can provide sustenance for a complex localized ecosystem over periods of decades.
Definition: The marine benthic biome (benthic meaning 'bottom') encompasses the seafloor and includes such areas as shores, littoral or intertidal areas, marine coral reefs, and the deep seabed.
Definition: sediment that accumulates in the flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. The three main types are siliceous oozes, calcareous oozes, and red clays.
Definition: sediment that accumulates in the flat or very gently sloping areas of the deep ocean basin floor. The three main types are siliceous oozes, calcareous oozes, and red clays.
Definition: Skeletal support provided by hydrostatic pressure from a fluid filled cavity (e.g. the coelum) surrounded by muscles. Hydrostatic pressure provides skeletal support in sea anemones, jellyfish, nematodes, annelids, echinoderms, and other groups.
Definition: A built-structure inhabited by an organism and essential to its survival, but not part of its body, composed of hardened (either rigid or flexible) secretions, with or without the addition of embedded particles, with those particles either selectively collected from the environment or passively becoming glued during formation (pers. comm. Read, G.).
Definition: A structural quality inhering in a bearer by virtue of the bearer's being thicker or more closely packed together; pressed tightly together.
Definition: An organism which obtains food primarily by surface deposit feeding. Reid WDK, Wigham BD, McGill RAR, Polunin NVC (2012) Elucidating trophic pathways in benthic deep-sea assemblages of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north and south of the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 463:89-103. doi:10.3354/meps09863
