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- Prehensile
- adapted for grasping or holding
- Prenatal
- preceding birth
- Prey
- animal hunted or killed for food by another animal
- Primary producer
- organism that makes own food by photosynthesis and/or chemical energy and is basis of a food chain
- Proboscis
- elongated or protruding organ or tube-like structure located in the oral region of many animals and commonly used in feeding; in pinnepeds an enlargement of the nose
- Producer
- organism that produces its own food through photosynthesis
- Purse seine
- a type of fishing net with an open end which can be drawn up to form a bag shape to capture the fish
- Purse seine
- a type of fishing net with an open end which can be drawn up to form a bag shape to capture the fish
- Quadrupedal
- four-footed animal
- Radial symmetry
- symmetrical arrangement of an animal's body around a central axis
- Radula
- tongue-like band of teeth used by many mollusks to scrape, tear or bore
- Raft
- large number of animals together in the water; usually applied to birds and pinnepeds
- Rasp
- to scrape or rub as with a file
- Recruitment
- process whereby young organisms are added to an adult population
- Red tide
- concentrations of certain microscopic organisms, particularly dinoflagellates, that discolor surface waters, usually in coastal regions and reduce oxygen supplies to animals deeper in the water column; some may be toxic
- Regeneration
- ability of some organisms to renew or replace an injured or lost organ or body part
- Regurgitation
- casting up of incompletely digested food, usually for the feeding of young
- Reptile
- vertebrate animal characterized as cold-blooded and having scales
- Respiration
- breathing; the act of assimilating oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide and other products
- Rhizomes
- horizontal plants capable of producing the upward shoot and downward root of a new plant
- Rhopalia
- concentration of neurons and sensory organs around a jelly's bell and between lobes; contains statocysts and ocelli
- Rostrum
- in fish - forward projection of snout; in cetaceans - upper jaw forming part of snout or beak; in crustaceans - forward pointing spine on the carapace
- Rufous
- reddish; tinged with red; brownish-red
- Salmonid
- fish belonging to the family Salmonidae which includes salmon, trout, char, whitefish, and graylings
- Salt pan
- small dip in high meadows where water is stranded after the tide falls
- Saltmarsh
- transition area of salt tolerant plants between terrestrial and marine ecosystems that are occasionally flooded by high tides; high marsh in contrast to low marsh mudflat
- Sargassum
- species of brown algae that is primarily found in the Sargasso Sea
- Scavenger
- animal that feeds on dead plants and animals
- Scrape
- depression in the sand or substrate that some shorebirds birds create. The bird leans forward on its breast and scratches with its feet while rotating its body axis.
- SCUBA
- device that lets a diver breathe air while under water (letters stand for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
- Scyphozoa
- class of Cniderians that includes jellies with a medusa form; true jellies
- Sea
- subdivision of the ocean, a smaller and shallower body of water than the ocean; often semi-enclosed or marginal where between land and the ocean
- Seagrass
- collective name for vascular marine flowering plants that grow in shallow waters on soft substrate
- Seamount
- peaked, underwater mountain rising at least 1,000m (3,280ft) above the ocean floor
- Seaweed
- collective name for non-vascular, non-microscopic plants that usually contain chlorophyll; commonly called algae
- Secondary consumers
- carnivorous animals
- Sedentary
- remaining in one place
- Semi-altricial
- developmental pattern of young birds in which the young are relatively immobile when they hatch, and are fed by the adults, but the young at birth are down-covered rather than naked.
- Semidiurnal tide
- tide that has two high and two low waters in each tidal day
- Semiprecocial
- chicks hatch with eyes open, covered with down, and able to walk; but unlike fully precocial chicks, remain in or near the nest for several weeks
- Sessile
- permanently attached to a substrate
- Sexual dimorphism
- differences between males and females in external appearance or behavior
- Shellfish
- aquatic animal with a shell; includes mollusks and crustaceans
- Shute
- bony plate
- Siliceous
- containing silica
- Siphon
- tube or tube-like part of an animal through which air, food or water passes
- Slough
- swamp, bog, marsh or pond that is part of an inlet or backwater
- Smolt
- juvenile salmon that has completed rearing in freshwater and migrates into the marine environment. Becomes physiologically capable of balancing salt and water in the estuary and ocean waters.
- Solitary
- living singly except during breeding and/or raising young
- Spawn
- to produce and deposit eggs
