Marine Ecosystems
Vocabulary
8th Grade Science 2015- Hydrosphere
Estuaries
Marine Ecosystems
A water environment, from pond to
ocean, in which plants and animals
interact with the chemical and
physical features of the environment.
They contain a large diversity of
organisms and include oceans, salt
marshes, estuaries, lagoons,
mangroves and coral reefs
Terrestrial Ecosystems
An interaction
between living and
nonliving things found
only on landforms.
Buffer Zones
The areas that buffer or
border between water
(marine) and land
(terrestrial) habitats
Estuaries
Partly closed coastal body of water
that is connected to one or more
rivers (freshwater) and the ocean
(saltwater) that contains a
mixture of salt and fresh water
(brackish water) and provide
habitats for large amounts of
aquatic organisms
Reservoir
Artificial
(man-made) lake
or dam used to
store water
The Ocean
Vertical Zonation Patterns
Categorizing plants and
animals into zones based
on their arrangement in
the habitat and other living
and non-living factors
Ocean Ecosystem
All the living things and
the physical
environment that make
up the area of an ocean
Nutrients
Chemicals that organisms
need to live and grow;
substances taken in from
an organism’s environment
that are used in an
organism’s metabolism
Dissolved Gases
A situation that occurs when
a gas becomes dissolved in
another solute due to
pressure. Ex- Soda (Carbon
Dioxide is dissolved in
another liquid)
Minerals
Naturally occurring
substance that is
required by living
organisms as part of
their dietary nutritional
intake
Upwelling
The wind driven motion of
dense, cooler, nutrient rich
water moving toward the
ocean surface replacing the
nutrient deficient surface
water
Deep Ocean Ecosystems
The physical environment
and all the living things
that make up the deep
ocean and deep ocean
ridges
Bioluminescence
The biochemical
emission of light
by living organisms