Greenwich Bay
Glossary

Anaerobic - Not requiring oxygen

Blastula - An embryo stage, usually with a hollow, fluid-filled cavity surrounded by a single layer of cells.

Ciliated - Possessing cilia, small, hairlike projections

Copepod - Tiny crustaceans of the order Copepoda; the dominant planktonic herbivore.

Decomposer - An organism that break down the tissues of excretions of other organisms into simpler substances through the process of decay.

Ecosystem - A community of organisms interacting with each other and the environment in which they live.

Estuary - A partially enclosed coastal embayment where fresh water and salt water meet and mix.

Eutrophication - The process by which a body of water becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients that stimulate the growth of aquatic plant life, usually resulting in the depletion of dissolved oxygen.

Gills - Organs that are modified for absorbing oxygen from water.

Groundwater - Water that occupies voids, cracks or other pore spaces in clay, silt, sand, gravel or rock.

Morula - A globular, solid mass of cells formed by the cleavage of a zygote (a fertilized egg and the stages that follow it). This stage precedes the blastula.


Photosynthesis - The process by which plants use sunlight to make energy-rich compounds from water and carbon dioxide.

Phytoplankton - Plant plankton

Plankton - Organisms that float at or near the surface of the water and are unable to swim strongly enough to go against tides, winds, or currents. Plants, animals, and bacteria can all be planktonic.

Primary production- The amount of organic matter organisms synthesize from inorganic substances within a given volume of water or habitat in a unit of time.

Salinity - A measure of the total amount of dissolved salts in seawater. The salinity of the ocean is 35 parts per thousand.

Salts - Sodium chloride (NaCl, or table salt), is what we commonly think of as salt. Salts, however, are a broader category that include all chemical compounds that are derived from acids by replacing the hydrogen wholly or partly with a metal or nonmetal.

Zooplankton - Animal plankton