Ascophyllum nodosum – A brown algal canopy forming intertidal rockweed, called the knotted wrack. It and other seaweeds provide a cover for other organisms from waves, heat loss, and predators. (picture right copyright Judd Curtis, Jcurtis@clarku.edu)

Benthic – bottom dweller

Bee Tags – tiny pieces of plastic with numbers used for marking invertebrates

Carcinus Maenas - European green crab dark green to orange or red. Up to 3.5" across the shell (picture left

Copulating – sexual mating

Desiccation – water loss and drying out. Organisms in the intertidal cope with desiccation by hiding or shutting their operculum

Gastropod – type of mollusk, more widely known as the snails, also includes nudibranchs and slugs A typical gastropod has a dorsal shell and radula

Intertidal – sometimes called the littoral zone, is the part of the seafloor that lies between the highest high tide and the lowest low tide.

ibutton: device capable of recording temperature

Littorinid – of the littoral zone or otherwise known as the upper intertidal because many of the periwinkle species are so adapted to the environment and thus abundant here

Littorina Littoria – European periwinkle, most common periwinkle in New England. It differs from saxatilis in that is has planktonic development. It can reach 2-3 cm in length and is generally found in the mid to high intertidal. This snail is an herbivore that feeds on algae that grows in the intertidal.

Marine Diatoms – single cell algae usually floating in the water as plankton (picture left from Marine Biology)

Mollusc - organisms with a soft body protected by a calcium carbonate shell. The basic body plan of a mollusc includes soft tissue surrounded by a mantle which produces the shell, a Radula, and a muscular foot for movement. Includes gastropods, bivalves and squids

Operculum – stiff plate that acts as a door for snails

Oviduct - A tube through which the ova pass from the ovary to the uterus or to the outside

Ovoviviparous – an animal that produces eggs that hatch inside the female immediately before birth

Planktonic larvae – immature stage of the organism that looks different than the adult and is disbursed by water

Radula – ribbon of small teeth used is scraping food from surface of rocks, etc.

Sessile – attached to rocks

Taxon - a group of organisms that share common ancestors.

Vertical zonation – in the intertidal there is a unique zoning pattern that exists. Usually a given species will not be found throughout the intertidal, but will be found in its specific zone within a vertical range (or up and down the shore). Usually the rocky intertidal is separated into the upper, middle and lower zones.

Information for this Glossary came from (Marine Biology, 2000) and (The Ecology of Atlantic Shorelines, 1999)

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