- Industry: Government
- Number of terms: 30456
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce
A large complex molecule made up of one or more chains of amino acids. A typical protein contains 200-300 amino acids but some are much smaller and some much larger, e.g., titin, a protein found in skeletal muscle contains approximately 27,000 amino acids in a single chain. Proteins perform a wide variety of essential activities in cells: they largely form the physical structure of cells and cellular matrices; catalysts for all biochemical reactions are enzymes, which contain protein; the transport of materials in body fluids depends of proteins; the receptors for hormones and other signalling molecules are proteins; motion and locomotion of cells and organisms depends on contractile proteins; the transcription factors that turn genes on and off are proteins; proteins are an essential nutrient for heterotrophs; and many more - the activities of cells and organisms are largely reflections of the activities of their proteins.
Industry:Natural environment
A opisthobranchiate mollusk (sea slugs), having no shell except while very young. The gills are naked and situated upon the back or sides.
Industry:Natural environment
A slender, rod-shaped structure that supports the membranes of the fins of fishes. There are two types of rays, soft rays and spines. Soft rays are jointed, often branched, and flexible near their tips. Spines are unjointed, unbranched, and usually sharp at the tip and stiff along the shaft.
Industry:Natural environment
A tool to help identify taxa. It is made up of pairs of choices. Each choice is between statements describing specific traits of the taxa under consideration. Only one statement will be true for each choice. Each choice points to another set of choices until finally only one choice remains.
Industry:Natural environment
An assessment of the short-term and long-term costs (losses) and benefits (gains) that arise from an economic decision. If the calculated benefits exceed the calculated costs, the decision to buy an economic good or provide a public good is considered profitable.
Industry:Natural environment
Any of several species of tropical coral reef fishes in the order Tetraodontiformes, family Balistidae, with laterally compressed bodies, heavy scales, and tough skins. Triggerfishes are named for the mechanism of the three spines of their first dorsal fin. When the fish is alarmed the first of these spines is locked upright by the second and drops only when the latter is pressed like a trigger. The function of this reaction is to lock the fish firmly in a mass of coral when attacked. Triggerfishes have powerful, chisel-like teeth adapted for cracking the coral and mollusks upon which they feed.
Industry:Natural environment
In scuba, a backup second stage regulator connected to the first stage, intended for the benefit of other scuba divers in case their air supply should fail. It is the alternate air source that forms the basis for the "buddy" system.
Industry:Natural environment
The change in the three-dimensional structure of amino acids from one form to a mirror image over time.
Industry:Natural environment
The material making up the base upon which an organism lives or to which it is attached.
Industry:Natural environment
The shallow area between the shoreline intertidal zone and the reef crest of a fringing reef.
Industry:Natural environment
