Science / Marine Biology Glossary

Gillnet: A net set upright in the water to catch fish by entangling their gills in its mesh.

Global Warming: Predicted increase in the earth's oceanic and atmospheric temperature, owing to additions of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, as a result of human activities

Gps. Global Positioning System: An electronic device that uses positioning signals from satellites in order to locate precisely latitutude and longitude. Now used nearly exclusively for locating ship sampling stations at s . . . View Full Definition

Grab: Benthic sampling device with two or more curved metal plates designed to converge when the sampler hits bottom and grab a specified volume of bottom sediment

Grazer: A predator that consumes organisms far smaller than itself (e.g., copepods graze on diatoms)

Greenhouse Effect: Carbon dioxide traps solar-derived heat in the atmosphere near the earth.

Gregarious Settling: Settlement of larvae that have been attracted to members of their own species

Gross Primary Productivity: The total primary production, not counting the loss in respiration

Guild: A group of species, possibly unrelated taxonomically, that exploit overlapping resources

Gyre: Major cyclonic surface current systems in the oceans

Habitat: The immediate space where an animal or plant lives and has food, water and protection. Habitat loss, which includes the destruction, degradation, or fragmentation of habitats, is the primary . . . View Full Definition

Halocline: Depth zone within which salinity changes maximally

Hardy-Weinberg Law: Law that states that the frequencies of genotypes in a population at a locus are determined by random mating and allele frequency

Harmful Algal Bloom: A bloom of (usually) planktonic microalgae belonging to a strain of a species that has a toxic harmful to marine organisms or humans consuming marine organisms.

Herbivore: An organism that consumes plants

Heritable Character: A morphological character whose given state can be explained partially in terms of the genotype of the individual

Hermaphrodite: An individual capable of producing both eggs and sperm during its lifetime

Hermatypic: Reef-building

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