Glossary (eng)

A depression, in some cases many metres deep and tens of metres wide, made on the seafloor by the base of an iceberg that is driven by wind and tide.

Crater in the seabed, usually one to tens of meters but as large as a few hundred meters in diameter, formed by the expulsion of gas and/or fluid from sediments.

Environments (which may also be thalassic) in which the salinity variation is biologically significant. Poikilohaline water salinities may range anywhere from 0.5 to greater than 300. The important characteristic is that these waters tend to vary in salinity over some biologically meaningful range seasonally or on some other roughly comparable time scale. Put simply, these are bodies of water with quite variable salinity. Highly saline water, from which salts crystallize (or are about to), is referred to as brine.

(Russian Federation GOST 27065-86) Income of pollutants (contaminants) as substances, micro-organisms or heat into a water body (see also GOVERNANCE TERMS).

(Russian Federation GOST 27065-86) Presence (containing by water body) of pollutants (contaminants) as substances, micro-organisms or heat in a water body.

From the Russian word for "lake"; an area of open water surrounded by sea ice.

Any of several submerged or floating freshwater perennial aquatic weeds belonging to the family Potamogetonaceae.

A group of individuals of the same species, occupying a defined area, and usually isolated to some degree from other similar groups. Populations can be relatively reproductively isolated and adapted to local environments.

Is the time interval since the total disappearance of continental glaciers form a particular area.

Physically distinct areas of seabed that may potentially be associated withsuites of species (communities or assemblages) that consistently occur together.