Benthal Zone Subsystem of Marine Port Aquatories

Abstract

The benthal zone of marine ports comprises the bottom sediments, overlying waters and interstitial waters of the harbours’ seabed and access channel. It is populated by microorganisms, fungi, plants and animals inhabiting the surface or the inner layers of the sediments. Benthos is divided into bacteriobenthos, micro- and macrophythobenthos, micro-, meio- and macrozoobenthos according to the type and size of the organisms. Some benthic organisms inhabit the surface of sediments (epifauna), while others live within their different layers (infauna). Among them there are mobile (vagile) and non-motile (sessile) species.