| A | B |
|---|
| Salinity | measure of the amount of dissolved solids, or salts, in seawater. |
| Photosynthesis | process by which plants, algae, and many types of bacteria make their own food. |
| Thermocline | layer of ocean water that begins at a depth of 200 m and becomes progressively colder with increasing depth. |
| Surface Current | ocean current that usually moves only the upper few hundred meters of seawater. |
| Density Current | forms when more dense seawater sinks beneath less dense seawater. |
| Producer | organisim that can make its own food by photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. |
| Chemosynthesis | process that occurs in deep ocean water where sunlight does not penetrate, in which bacteria make food from dissolved sulfur compounds. |
| Consumer | organism that gets its energy from eating other organisms. |
| Decomposer | organism that breaks down tissue and releases nutrients and carbon dioxide back into the ecosytem |
| Food Chain | model that describes how energy in the form of food passes from one organism to another. |
| Upwelling | ocean current that moves cold, deep water to the ocean surface. |
| Wave | the rhythmic movement that carries energy through water in the ocean. |
| Tide | rhythmic rise and fall in sea level created by the gravitational attraction of Earth and the Moon and Earth and the Sun. |
| Plankton | tiny marine orgainisms, such as diatoms, that drift in the surface waters of every ocean. |
| Nekton | marine animals, such as fish and turtles, that activley swim in ocean waters. |
| Ecosystem | all of the communities in a given area and the abiotic factors that affect them. |
