Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Living upon or in the bottom of the continental shelf or littoral zone of the ocean; of or pertaining to epibenthos. See epibenthos, benthos, benthonic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective biology That lives on the surface of sediments at the bottom of the sea

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From epi- +‎ benthic

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Examples

  • Dynamics of the epibenthic community of roots of the mangrove Rhizophora mangle, at Bahía de Buche, Venezuela.

    Coastal Venezuelan mangroves 2008

  • It appeared that the effects were largely due to the intensive washing more than to the use of Corexit 7664, and were evident in intertidal epibenthic macrobiota.

    Exxon Valdez oil spill 2008

  • Periphyton may grow attached to other plants (ephytic periphyton) or on rocks and other substrate (epibenthic periphyton).

    Aquatic plants 2008

  • Preliminary analysis of the survey data for the first 18 months indicates that the FRP reefs appear to attract and retain a significantly greater total abundance and diversity of fish, and have much richer epibenthic communities than the culvert reefs.

    3 Artificial Reefs and Fish Aggregating Devices 1987

Comments

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  • Thus was the abyssal benthos discovered, the community of organisms living on or close to the ocean floor. In the 1960s a major advance was made by the introduction of the epibenthic sled, which rakes the top layer of the floor with fine mesh nets and traps the residue with a closing door to prevent the winnowing and loss of smaller organisms.

    —Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life

    June 15, 2015