Marine Resources Assessment for the Marianas Operating ... - SPREP

AUGUST 2005 FINAL REPORT
Benthonic—relating to or happening on the bottom under a body of water
Benthopelagic—the ecological zone from the seabed to 100 m above the seabed
Benthos—organisms that live in, on, or are attached to the ocean bottom substrate
Biogenic⎯originating from living organisms
Biomass—the amount of living matter per unit of water surface or water volume
Bioprospecting—searching for commercially valuable biochemical and genetic resources in plants,
animals, and microorganisms for use in food production, development of new drugs, and other
biotechnology applications
Biotic—pertaining to life or living organisms
Bivalve—a group of marine or freshwater mollusk that consists of a soft body protected by two hinging
shells (e.g., scallops and oysters)
Blackfish—a colloquial term adopted from American whalers and sometimes applied to pilot whales and
other superficially similar species including false killer, pygmy killer, and melon-headed whales
Bloom—the usually seasonally dense growth of algae or phytoplankton that is triggered by an increase in
the nutrient concentration or increased availability of light
Blow—air exhaled through the blowhole of a cetacean mixed with surrounding water that is displaced by
the exhalation
Blowhole—the nostrils or nasal openings on top of the head of a cetacean
Boreal—comprising or throughout far northern regions
Bottlenose dolphin—the former common name for Tursiops truncatus, now called the common
bottlenose dolphin
Brackish—having a salinity between that of fresh and sea water
Brooded planulae—incubation of planula (flat, ciliated, larva of hydrozoan coelenterates) within the
polyp of corals; form of asexual reproduction
Brown algae—division of algae (Phaeophycophyta) consisting of large macroscopic forms occurring
widespread in marine habitats attached either to rocks, stones or coarser algae (kelp); commonly found
relatively shallow water in the intertidal and subtidal zones along the coast, in estuaries, and muddy
bottoms of salt marshes
Bryozoan⎯phylum of small, aquatic colonial animals that are commonly called moss animals; each
zooid or animal in the colony has a crown of ciliated tentacles
Budding⎯asexual reproduction in which small portion of an organism grows out from and eventually
develops into another individual or another equivalent part of a colony
Bull—a male seal or whale, especially an adult male
Buoy—a bright-colored float attached by rope to the seabed to mark channels in a harbor or underwater
hazards
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