Ocean and Deep Sea Terms
(the study of the deep seas or oceans involves the abyss or the "deep seas" which cover almost two-thirds of the earth's surface; showing applicable scientific terminology in this unit)
Plankton range in size from viruses and micron-sized bacteria to single-celled algae and protists (generally less than 200 micrometers) to small crustaceans (generally up to a few millimeters), the krill, extending to a few centimeters, and jelly fish, which may be meters long.
Members of this group, traditionally known as the Protozoa, are key grazers on the smaller phytoplankton.
Differences in density between water types are created by differences in their temperature and salt content; cooler, saltier water is more dense.
Pynoclines often coincide with thermoclines (vertical temperature gradients), but can also arise from differences in the salt content between water types.
The term is often used in environmental chemistry to denote the length of time an ion or compound remains in the atmosphere or surface waters.
They live in symbiosis with the chemosynthetic bacteria that provide the worms with their nutrition. It took the scientific specialists awhile to understand the functioning of the animal, which at first they believed to be a filter feeder.
At first they were described as having no eyes, no mouth, or any other obvious organs for ingesting food or secreting waste, and no means of locomotion. It was not a worm, a snake, nor an eel, but it wasn't a plant either.
Their transparent bodies are barrel-shaped, open at both ends; they draw water in at one end and expel it at the other end as they move through the water.
Salps, along with the larvaceans, are protochordates.
A stock is a breeding unit, defined by having its own time and place for spawning, and its own pattern of migration to and from nursery, feeding, and spawning grounds.
Stocks can generally be differentiated genetically, morphologically, or based on other differences.
Index of additional Scientific and Technological Topics.