benthon

See also: Benthon

English

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

benthon (plural benthons)

(ecology, biology) The habitat at the bottom of a body of water.
- 1961, Challenger Society for the Promotion of the Study of Oceanography, Annual Report and Proceedings of the Challenger Society‎, volume 13-20, The Society, OCLC 173380335, page 28:
  The simple trophic relations in the plankton do not demand such a wide variety of adaptations as do the complex relations in the benthon where, in addition to microphagous herbivores, there are also macrophagous ones and an^[sic] unique of detritus feeders which build up animal protoplasm on the sea floor.