Detritus - disintegrated matter
made up of 95% dead Spartina grass, 5% algae, bacteria, fungi,
and animal wastes.
Dichotomous Key – a key
for identification that uses sets of statements that are divided
into 2 usually contradictory parts.
Dune – a ridge of wind-blown
sand.
Marsh – a low-lying wetland
affected by the tides.
Shoals – shallow areas
located offshore where eroded sand builds up.
Maritime Forest – a forest
located by or near the sea.
Erosion – the gradual
eating into or wearing away of soil or sand.
Accretion – the gradual
build-up of soil or sand.
Species – the basic unit
of classification, made up of a population of closely related
or similar organisms.
Adaptation – any feature
of a living organism that allows it to deal with its environment
efficiently, and so improves its chance of survival.
Habitat – a place or a kind of place where
a plant or animal naturally occurs.
Intertidal Zone – the
area on the beach located between the high and low tide lines.
Alongshore Current – a
current that flows along the shore.
Niche – the place occupied
by a species in its ecosystem – where it lives, what it
eats, its foraging route, season of activity.
Litter- carelessly discarded
waste.
Producer – an organism
that synthesizes its own food.
Consumer – an organism
that cannot synthesize its own food and must obtain it from another
source.
Decomposer – an organism
that synthesizes food by breaking down another organism.
Predator – an animal that
preys upon another.
Prey – an animal hunted
or caught for food.
Competition – contest
between living organisms to get essential commodities such as
space, food or light, which are in limited supply.
Succession – the orderly and progressive
replacement of one ecosystem by another until a stable community
occupies the area.
Quadrat – a square of
habitat chosen at random to study the composition of vegetation
and animal life in a survey of the selected area.
Symbiosis – different
species living together for the benefit of one or both.
Food chain – the chain
of events where a plant is eaten by an herbivore, the herbivore
is eaten by a carnivore and so on..
