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

AUGUST 2005 FINAL REPORT
Phototrophic—capable of deriving energy from light
Physiographic—pertaining to geographic features of the earth’s surface
Physiography—physical geography of the ocean bottom and continental margins
Phytophages—plant-eating
Phytoplankton—microscopic, photosynthetic plankton, which are the base of the food chain on which
ultimately most shellfish, fish, birds, and marine mammals depend
Picoplankton—small plankton within the size ranging 0.2 to 2.0 m in size; composed primarily of
bacteria
Pinnacles—sharp pyramidal or cone-shaped rock partly or completely covered by water
Pinnipeds—seals, sea lions, and walruses
Plankton—organisms that drift in the water column or on the water’s surface, with no means of propelling
or moving themselves
Plastron—bony shield composing the ventral side of a turtle’s shell
Pleopods—one of paired abdominal appendages among crustaceans; may be used in swimming,
fanning water, respiration or reproduction
Plume—a column of water
Point—single x, y coordinate pair that represents a single geographic feature (e.g., sea turtle sighting)
Polychaete—class of soft-bodied, metamerically segmented coelomate worms; marine; may be freeswimming,
errant, burrowing or tube dwelling
Polygon—area represented by a two-dimensional feature
Polyp bail-out—dissociation and dispersal of coral polyps from adult colonies; asexual reproduction
Polyp balls—daytime corals release small balls of coral tissue which fall on the reef surface near the
parent and grow into new colonies
Population—a group of individuals of the same species occupying the same area
Porifera—phylum of simple multicellular animals, called sponges; enclosed in a single central cavity or
penetrated by numerous interconnected cavities; filter feeder, sessile; may be marine or freshwater
Posterior—situated near or toward the back of an animal's body
Potentially harvested coral reef taxa (PHCRT)⎯subcategory of MUS including coral reef organisms
that are not known to be currently caught or for which very little fishery information is available; several
CHCRT are also PHCRT; all genera or species in these taxa that are not listed as CHCRT are by default
PHCRT
Precision—number of significant digits used to store coordinate values; imperative for accurate feature
representation, analysis, and mapping
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