Kelp Forests support healthy fish populations
Kelp Forest Glossary
Abiotic Environment
- The physical surroundings of an organism
- Affirm
- Establish or strengthen as with new evidence or facts
- Air Bladders
- Anything inflated or hollow; inflated hollow structure called a vesicle in an algae, often filled with air, to aid floating
- Algae
- Any of a large group of simple plants that contain chlorophyll; are not divisible into roots, stems and leaves; do not produce seeds; and include the seaweeds and related freshwater and land plants
- Annual
- A plant that completes its entire life cycle within the space of a year
- Aquatic
- Living or growing in or on the water
- Biodiversity
- An expression of the number of different species occurring in a given area
- Blade
- The broad, flattened, leaf-like part of a seaweed thallus
- Canopy
- The "roof" of the forest formed by the tops of the tallest kelp
- Chlorophyll
- Green-colored pigments that plants use to help make their own food
- Climate
- The general or typical atmospheric conditions for a place and/or period of time; conditions include rainfall, temperature, thunderstorms, lightening, freezes, etc.
- Consumptive
- The use of a resource that reduces the supply, such as harvesting kelp
- Crustaceans
- A group of mainly aquatic animals including crabs, shrimps, and barnacles, with hard outer skeletons or shells and paired, jointed, limbs
- Diversity
- Number of species in a particular community or habitat
- Dynamic equilibrium
- The condition of balance between varying, shifting and opposing forces which is characteristic of living processes
- Ecological
- Relating to the interrelationships of organisms and their environment
- Ecosystem
- A community of organisms, interacting with each other plus the environment, in which they live and react
- Estuarine
- A bay, influenced by the ocean tides, which has resulted in a mixture of salt water and fresh water
- Eukaryotic
- Referring to a cell with a nucleus and other internal structure
- External activities
- Activities outside a place, such as a national park, that may affect the biotic and abiotic elements within the place
- Extractive
- Involved in removing or taking something out; the extractive kelp industry is one in which workers harvest kelp for processing into a variety of products
- Filter-feeding
- Animals that take water into their bodies and filter out water-borne debris and dissolved organic matter
- Food web
- The connections among everything organisms in a location are eaten by and eat
- Forage
- To wander or rove in search of food
- Frond
- The "leaf" of the kelp plant; fronds also release the plant's spores or "seeds"
- Habitat
- The natural home of a plant or animal
- Holdfast
- A part of a kelp that clings to a flat surface
- Intertidal zone
- The region in an ocean that lies between the highest high tide level and the lowest low tide level; biota living in the intertidal zone are alternately covered and then uncovered by water
- Invertebrate
- An animal with no backbone or spinal column
- Kelp
- Any one of brown algae or seaweed, often growing in oceanic "forests"
- Kelp forests
- Underwater forests of tall, brown algae that grow in cool coastal waters
- Lobbyist
- Someone who tries to persuade legislators to vote for bills that the lobbyists favor; lobbyists are usually paid by the group they represent
- Macrocystis
- A genus name meaning "large bladder"
- Marine
- Living in the sea and not in fresh water
- Marine snow
- Organic materials floating in the water column near the surface that clump together and eventually sink to the bottom; these clumps of "snow" continuously drift down from the surface waters, delivering nutrients to the deep-water organisms
- Mean low water
- The average level of low water at a place over a 19-year period
- Meltwater
- Water resulting from the melting of snow or glacial ice; glacial meltwater often forms streams and carries rock material beyond active glaciers
- Morphologic
- Describing the form and structure of an organism or any of its parts
- Motile
- Ability to move at will
- Mud flats
- A wide area of fine sediment exposed at low tide, on the seaward side of a coast in sheltered waters
- Multicellular
- Organisms that are made up of more than one cell (compare with unicellular)
- Nutrients
- Substances which are required to support living plants and organisms
- Op-ed
- An op-ed is a piece of writing expressing an opinion. Such items are often found in a full newspaper page, containing articles by columnists, letters to the editor, and other information, rather than news or facts.
- Organic Act (1916)
- An act that, among other things, established the National Park Service
- Perennial
- A plant that lives for more than 2 growing seasons
- Phenomenon
- An unusual or remarkable fact or event
- Photosynthesis
- The process by which green plants, algae and some bacteria absorb light energy and use it to synthesize their food (organic compounds)
- Planktonic
- Suspended plants and animals that are incapable of locomotion and are carried by the currents
- Plant
- Living organism that makes its own food from inorganic substances and has neither the power of movement nor special organs, sensation or digestion
- Pneumatocysts (pneu=air/cyst=ball)
- Rounded organs like balloons that hold the kelp up to get more sunlight
- Protist
- Organisms that are not considered true animals, plants or fungi; includes algae of all kinds
- Rainforest
- A closed forest in areas of high precipitation with a large diversity of species forming a deep, densely interlacing canopy in which vines and ferns are often present
- Reintroduce
- To return members of a species to their historical range; this strategy is sometimes used when a species has become locally extinct or if its population is threatened
- Sediments
- Fine particles of rock, dirt or sand that have settled to the bottom of a body of water
- Silt
- Fine particles of soil floating in rivers, ponds, or lakes and settling to the bottom as sediment
- Stem
- Slender or elongated structure that supports a plant or fungus or a plant part or plant organ
- Stipe
- The stem of a kelp plant; it is hollow and is full of air which helps to keep it upright in the water column; it is also flexible, which allows it to bend in the water's strong currents
- Strata
- Classification of forest based on height, age and species composition
- Subtidal
- The portion of a tidal-flat environment that lies below the level of mean low water for spring tides; normally, it is covered by water at all stages of the tide
- Subtidal zone
- Region in the ocean that lies below the range of tidal exposure; always covered by water
- Successional
- Relating to the gradual replacement of one plant community by another through natural processes over time
- Terrestrial
- Of or relating to or inhabiting the land, as opposed to the sea or air
- Thallus
- A plantlike organism not divided into leaves, stem, and root; mushrooms and lichen are examples of thalli
- Tide
- The regular rise and fall of the sea level under the gravitational pull of the moon; high tide, when the water reaches its highest level, occurs twice a day; low tide, when the water reaches its lowest level, occurs twice a day
- Tidewater Glacier
- Glaciers that flow into the sea
- Unicellular
- One-celled organisms
- Urchin barrens
- Large congregations of sea urchins that have eaten all the kelp
- Vascular tissues
- Tissues found in the bodies of vascular plants that transport water, nutrients, and carbohydrates
- Venn diagram
- A useful way of comparing sets; a typical Venn diagram uses overlapping circles to represent groups of items or ideas that share common properties
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