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Definition English:
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All organisms living at the bottom [of the sea]. It includes, the ones living on the surface of the ocean floor (epibentos) or well buried in the sediment (endobentos). They can be plants (phytobenthos) or animals (zoobenthos), macroscopic (megalobenthos, macrobenthos) of average size (meiobenthos) or microscopic (microbenthos). The benthos is particularly important in productive coastal waters, where the phytobenthos receives enough light to grow and feed dense populations of zoobenthos. (Free translation of the original: http://www.pes.fvet.edu.uy/cienmar/madid/glosario.html; 01-10-2006) |