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The Facts On File DICTIONARY of MARINE SCIENCE New Edition The Facts On File DICTIONARY of MARINE SCIENCE New Edition Barbara Charton The Facts On File Dictionary of Marine Science, New Edition Copyright © 2008, 2001, 1988 by Barbara Charton Illustrations © 2008 by Infobase Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 ISBN-10: 0-8160-6383-4 ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6383-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The Facts on File dictionary of marine science / Barbara Charton.— [New ed.] p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) ISBN 0-8160-6383-4 1. Marine sciences—Dictionaries. I. Charton, Barbara. II. Facts On File, Inc. III. Title: Dictionary of marine science. GC9 .F28 2006 551.4603—dc22 2006045654 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quanti- ties for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can fi nd Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfi le.com Text and cover design by Cathy Rincon Illustrations by Richard Garratt Printed in the United States of America MP KT 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper. CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Preface ix Entries A to Z 1 Appendixes I. Geologic Timescale 429 II. Marine History: A Chronology of Signifi cant Events 433 III. Taxonomic Classifi cation of Living Organisms 439 IV. Recent or Ongoing Marine Science Research Projects 443 V. Web Sites 445 Bibliography 463 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The people who encouraged and supported my efforts during the creation of the fi rst edition have been forbearing and were so again. I am grateful. This work would not have been fi nished without the people and the great library at New York University. I would also like to thank Frank K. Darmstadt, my editor, and Melissa Cullen-DuPont, assistant editor, for being encouraging, supportive, and challenging. The graphics department at Facts On File has been of invaluable help in putting together this new edition. Years ago I promised Marvin, The Great Mind, that it would be easier the second time around, and it was. It has also been great fun having a partner with whom to collect rocks and minerals, fossils, and endless new information about the expanding array of invertebrates. Fitting all this new information into both ecological and environmental contexts has taught me much, and I look forward to sharing it with others interested in the continuing story of Earth—our biome. vviiii PREFACE To some it may seem that the ocean is the same today as it was many years ago. The average mean temperature has risen several degrees since 1900, and this does not create excitement for most people. But in reality, the rise of several degrees is far from insig- nifi cant. This increased warmth is enough to dissolve coral reefs and destroy ecosystems. Since the appearance of the fi rst edition of this work, a great deal of research has been produced, much of which is now general knowledge. The general population has become much more aware of the ocean’s effect on all life, and phenomena such as global warming are now matters of public discussion. The increase in temperature credited to global warming has fi nally been accepted as a fact, and this is no surprise to paleoclimatologists. It has happened before, and it will get worse, according to computer projections, which depict that by the mid-21st century there will be a clear shipping channel in summer months around the northern perimeter of North America. The discussion of how human activity affects this phenomenon and what humans—the dominant organism likely to be affected the most—must do to prevent catastrophe is now being actively studied. The water of Earth defi nes the planet. As soon as astronauts could see the Earth from space, their name for Earth was the Blue Planet—or the Blue Marble. The photographs taken of planet Earth from space are spectacular and classic. Since water is a substance found everywhere, it is easy for humans to take it for granted, but doing so is a terrible mistake. Since life does not exist in the absence of water, water in its greatest concentra- tion in the world’s oceans deserves respect, consideration, and study. Marine science is a composite fi eld that encompasses other disciplines and their rela- tions to the world’s oceans. Thus, biochemistry, botany, chemistry, ecology, geodesy, geog- raphy, geology, geophysics, hydrology, meteorology, microbiology, minerology, seismology, and zoology may all be marine sciences in some instances, as are their combinations and subdisciplines. Some of the fi elds that apply information gathered by natural and physical scientists include engineering, pharmacology, medicine, population study, and toxicology. The instruments used by scientists and others who apply science have undergone both proliferation and vast elaboration. These instruments range from the simplest tools used by hunter-gatherers to boats, navigation devices, weather instruments, energy-pro- ducing engines, elaborate computer projections of future events, and robotic devices that can take the place of humans in hostile environments. Though scientists have amassed a huge amount of knowledge, much remains to be discovered. The Tree of Life project started in the 1990s to collect data about every cur- rently living organism, and it is growing rapidly. Unknown and unclassifi ed vertebrates are still being found. Since vertebrates are a relatively small group of the biota, it is easy to assume that they are all known. However, life is much more complicated than any biologist thought it might be. For example, it was previously believed that the Sargasso Sea contained few living organisms except a few fl oating algal species. Since the 1980s better collecting devices have been perfected that have discovered living organisms the previous collecting methods destroyed. It is now known that tiny soft-bodied creatures live in the Sargasso Sea in great numbers. Thus, improved methods and instruments have opened up many areas that were once dismissed as completely understood and cat- alogued. This continues to happen. Research in the Coral Triangle near western Papua has recently produced a number of as-yet-unidentifi ed species and genera. Unfortunately, much scientifi c work is done in a race against destruction of habitat. The ocean, often viewed as a limitless resource, has been misused by humans for centu- ries. But the ocean’s biomes are neither boundless nor inexhaustible. They are as fragile ix

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ocean to another, so early sailing was very much a coastal business. Eventually, however, One factor that is unchanging, however, is that air is produced by living things. With- out the abiotic environment The physical fac- tors that affect an ecosystem, beach grasses are angiosperms that have