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Benthos are the organisms that live in the benthic zone, and are different from those elsewhere in the water column; even within the benthic zone variations in such factors as light penetration, temperature and salinity give rise to distinct differences, delineated vertically, in the groups of organisms supported. [10]
Filamentous cyanobacteria growing on an underwater surface. Phytobenthos (/. f aɪ t oʊ ˈ b ɛ n θ ɒ s /) (from Greek φυτόν (phyton, meaning "plants") and βένθος (benthos, meaning "depths") are autotrophic organisms found attached to bottom surfaces of aquatic environments, such as rocks, sediments, or even other organisms.
Benthos are highly sensitive to contamination, so their close proximity to high pollutant concentrations make these organisms ideal for studying water contamination. [21] Benthos can be used as bioindicators of water pollution through ecological population assessments or through analyzing biomarkers. In ecological population assessments, a ...
Pelagic zones. The ocean can be conceptualized as being divided into various zones, depending on depth, and presence or absence of sunlight.Nearly all life forms in the ocean depend on the photosynthetic activities of phytoplankton and other marine plants to convert carbon dioxide into organic carbon, which is the basic building block of organic matter.
Macrobenthos consists of the organisms that live at the bottom of a water column [1] and are visible to the naked eye. [2] In some classification schemes, these organisms are larger than 1 mm; [1] in another, the smallest dimension must be at least 0.5 mm. [3] They include polychaete worms, pelecypods, anthozoans, echinoderms, sponges, ascidians, crustaceans.
"Naturalists using the dredge", a plate from William Henry Harvey's The Seaside Book. The first marine biology dredge was designed by Otto Friedrich Müller and in 1830 the results of two dredging expeditions undertaken by Henri Milne-Edwards and his friend Jean Victoire Audouin during 1826 and 1828 in the neighbourhood of Granville were published.
Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in marine or freshwater environments, or both.The term meiofauna loosely defines a group of organisms by their size—larger than microfauna but smaller than macrofauna—rather than by their taxonomy.
Sea pens are marine cnidarians belonging to the order Pennatulacea, which are colony-forming benthic filter feeders within the class Octocorallia (subphylum Anthozoa).There are 14 families within the order and 35 extant genera; it is estimated that of 450 described species, around 200 are valid.