benthonic
Benthic stingrays live at the bottom of the sea while pelagic stingrays are more likely to be found in the open ocean.
The diversity of benthic invertebrate species increases the abundance of food fish that populates that part of the ocean.
The bay is full of worms and other benthic organisms that are an indicator of good water quality and serve as food for the other creatures.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Sea creatures
abalone
amphipod
anemone
barnacle
barrier reef
crab
cray
crayfish
crustacean
cuttlefish
lobster
marron
mollusc
mussel
octopus
shipworm
shrimp
snow crab
soft-shell clam
squid

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Seas & oceans

Examples of benthic

benthic
The negatively phototactic phase could be expected to enhance the probability of contact with benthic second intermediate host snails.
Other specializations may not have evolved in parasites of benthic crustaceans, though preference of single species usually changes from locality to locality.
Thus, a pronounced impact on benthic and pelagic communities should be expected.
Trilobites inferred to have had a planktonic larval phase are proportionately 1.5 times more likely to become extinct than species with a benthic larval phase.
Their restriction to shallow marine environments suggests that photosynthesis was the primary means of organic matter production for these benthic communities.
As witnessed by the stromatolite record, benthic microbial mats grew in shallow water lagoonal environments.
The parasite species with indirect life cycles recorded in the river have mostly benthic molluscs and crustaceans as intermediate hosts.
Ichnofossils and ichnofabrics in rhythmically bedded pelagic/hemi-pelagic carbonates: recognition and evaluation of benthic redox and scour cycles.
Benthic crustaceans are also important intermediate hosts of several helminth parasites.
In these localities, eggs which sink to the bottom are likely to survive for successful transmission to potential intermediate hosts, such as benthic copepods.
Changes have propagated through benthic invertebrates, with the macrofauna changing from echinoids and large clams to opportunistic brittle stars and polychaetes.
Interpreting benthic oxygen levels in mudrocks: a new approach.
During this interval geochemical events recorded in the surface ocean sediments co-occur red with a rapid evolutionary radiation of benthic metazoans.
Species diversity decreases with depth to a minimum in the bathypelagic zone, and then increases in the benthic boundary layer.
The latter two clone groups apparently represent widely distributed archaea in benthic marine sediments and the subsurface.
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