Terms (45)
Terms are in alphabetical order. Each entry is short; follow the links to the unit where the word is explained in context.
- Accretion
- The slow build-up of land, such as a marsh surface rising as sediment and plant matter collect. See salt marshes.
- Atoll
- A ring of coral reef around a lagoon with no island in the middle. See coral reefs.
- Bleaching
- The loss of a coral’s algae under stress, usually from unusually warm water, which turns the coral white.
- Blue carbon
- Carbon stored in coastal wetlands such as salt marshes, mangroves and seagrass meadows.
- Coastal squeeze
- The loss of coastal habitat caught between a rising sea and a hard barrier, such as a sea wall, that stops it moving inland.
- Copepod
- A small crustacean, a few millimetres long, that grazes phytoplankton; one of the most numerous animals on Earth.
- Coral polyp
- The small, soft animal with a ring of tentacles that builds a coral colony.
- Creek (tidal)
- A winding channel through a marsh or mud flat that fills and drains with the tide.
- Desiccation
- Drying out. A main danger for animals living high on a rocky shore.
- Diatom
- A single-celled alga with a glass-like shell; a major group of phytoplankton.
- Diurnal tide
- A tide pattern with one high and one low water in a lunar day.
- Estuary
- A place where a river meets the sea and fresh water mixes with salt water.
- Fetch
- The distance of open water over which the wind blows, which helps decide how large waves grow.
- Food chain
- A single line showing who eats whom, such as diatom, copepod, herring, seal.
- Food web
- The whole network of feeding links in a community.
- Groyne
- A wall or barrier built out across a beach to trap drifting sand.
- Halophyte
- A plant that tolerates salty soil.
- Hydraulic action
- Erosion caused by waves forcing water and air into cracks in rock.
- Intertidal zone
- The part of the shore between the highest and lowest tides, covered at high tide and exposed at low tide.
- Keystone species
- A species whose effect on its community is much larger than its numbers suggest.
- Longshore drift
- The zigzag movement of sand and pebbles along a coast by waves that arrive at an angle.
- Managed realignment
- Moving a coastal defence landward so that the sea can flood land behind it and create new habitat.
- Mangrove
- A tree or shrub adapted to live in salty, tidal mud in warm regions; also the forest they form.
- Neap tide
- A tide with a smaller than average range, around the quarter moons.
- Nursery habitat
- A place where the young of many species shelter and feed as they grow.
- Ocean acidification
- The fall in sea pH as the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the air.
- Phytoplankton
- Drifting, microscopic organisms that make food from sunlight by photosynthesis.
- Plankton
- Organisms that drift with the water and cannot swim strongly against currents.
- Pneumatophore
- An upright root that grows above the mud in some mangroves and takes in air through pores.
- Primary production
- The making of living matter from sunlight and simple ingredients by plants, algae and some bacteria.
- Prop root
- A stilt-like root that spreads a tree’s weight in soft mud.
- Propagule
- A seed or seedling that can spread a plant; in some mangroves it starts growing on the parent tree.
- Rhizome
- A creeping underground stem that anchors a plant and spreads it sideways, as in seagrass.
- Salt marsh
- A coastal wetland of salt-tolerant plants on soft sediment that is flooded by the tide.
- Seagrass
- A flowering plant that lives fully underwater in shallow seas. Not a seaweed.
- Sediment budget
- The balance sheet of sediment arriving at, moving along and leaving a coast.
- Semidiurnal tide
- A tide pattern with two high and two low waters in a lunar day, of similar size.
- Spring tide
- A tide with a larger than average range, around new and full moon. Unrelated to the season.
- Swash and backwash
- The rush of a broken wave up a beach (swash) and the flow of water back down it (backwash).
- Tidal range
- The height difference between high water and low water.
- Trophic level
- A feeding step in a food web, such as producer, primary consumer or predator.
- Upwelling
- The rise of cold, nutrient-rich water from depth to the surface.
- Zonation
- The arrangement of living things in bands, such as along a rocky shore or across a marsh.
- Zooplankton
- Drifting animals and animal-like organisms that eat other plankton.
- Zooxanthellae
- Microscopic algae that live inside the tissue of reef-building corals and feed them.
Tips for using the glossary
- Say the definition aloud in your own words. If you cannot, read the unit again.
- Pair terms that are opposites: spring and neap, producer and consumer, swash and backwash.
- Make flash cards by hand: the word on one side, your own sentence on the other.