Definition: The marine benthic biome (benthic meaning 'bottom') encompasses the seafloor and includes such areas as shores, littoral or intertidal areas, marine coral reefs, and the deep seabed.
Definition: The marine salt marsh biome comprises marshes that are transitional intertidals between land and salty or brackish marine water (e.g.: sloughs, bays, estuaries). It is dominated by halophytic (salt tolerant) herbaceous plants. The daily tidal surges bring in nutrients, which tend to settle in roots of the plants within the salt marsh. The natural chemical activity of salty (or brackish) water and the tendency of algae to bloom in the shallow unshaded water also allow for great biodiversity.
Definition: A submergent coastal landform that forms where sea levels rise relative to the land either as a result of eustatic sea level change; where the global sea levels rise or isostatic sea level change; where the land sinks. When this happens valleys which were previously at sea level become submerged.
Definition: Expressions of the estuarine biome occur at wide lower courses of a rivers where they flow into a sea. Estuaries experience tidal flows and their water is a changing mixture of fresh and salt.
