<descriptor thcode="62"><thesaurus thcode="62" name="Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard" scope="Categories of ecosystems for coastal, estuarine, and marine environments." creator="FGDC" rights="public domain" date="2017-05-10" codetype="alpha" prefix="cmecs" uri="https://www2.usgs.gov/science/CMECS" tblname="cmecs" root_code="root" contact="pschweitzer"><category><term thcode="25" code="16" name="hierarchical" parent="11" scope="Substantive broader-narrower relationships exist among the terms."/><term thcode="25" code="16" name="hierarchical" parent="11" scope="Substantive broader-narrower relationships exist among the terms."/></category><altlabel><altlabel>CMECS</altlabel><altlabel>CMECS</altlabel><altlabel>Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS)</altlabel><altlabel>Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS)</altlabel></altlabel></thesaurus><term thcode="62" code="BC-425" name="Attached Fauna" parent="BC-391" scope="Biotic Subclass: Areas characterized by rock substrates, gravel substrates, other hard substrates, or mixed substrates that are dominated by fauna which maintain contact with the substrate surface, including firmly attached, crawling, resting, interstitial, or clinging fauna. ..."/><bt><term thcode="62" code="BC-391" name="Faunal Bed" parent="BC-389" scope="Biotic Class: Seabeds dominated or characterized by a cover of animals that are closely associated with the bottom, including attached, clinging, sessile, infaunal, burrowing, laying, interstitial, and slow-moving animals, but not animals that have created substrate (Reef Biota). ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-389" name="Benthic/Attached Biota" parent="BC-C002" scope="Biotic Setting: This biotic setting describes areas where biota lives on, in, or in close association with the seafloor or other substrates (e.g., pilings, buoys), extending down into the sediment to include the sub-surface layers of substrate that contain multi-cellular life. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-C002" name="Biotic" parent="root"/><term thcode="62" code="root" name="CMECS" scope="Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard: Category terms encompassing waters from the head of tide or inland incursion of ocean salinity to the splash zone of the coasts to the deepest portions of the oceans and the deep waters of the Great Lakes."/></bt><nt><term thcode="62" code="BC-507" name="Attached Anemones" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard substrate areas dominated by attached anemones (coelenterates which secure themselves to a hard substrate with a pedal disc). These assemblages are common in certain rocky, coastal areas."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1210" name="Attached Basket Stars" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard or mixed substrate areas characterized by brushy, many-armed echinoderms known as basket stars. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1211" name="Attached Brachiopods" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by brachiopods, a phylum of animals with two shells, a stalk-like peduncle, and a tentacular, ciliated feeding organ. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-509" name="Attached Bryozoans" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by abundant or structurally complex, attached bryozoan communities that are may be habitat-forming. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-510" name="Attached Corals" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Subtidal (and deeper) substrates that are dominated by non-reef-forming corals. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-511" name="Attached Crinoids" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Assemblages on hard or mixed substrates that are dominated by either attached, stalked crinoids (or &quot;sea lilies&quot;) or motile (but often stationary, see Barnes 1980), comatulid (or &quot;feather stars&quot;). ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1216" name="Attached Holothurians" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas where the epifaunal community is dominated by sessile or slow-moving holothurians (sea cucumbers) on hard or mixed substrates. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-513" name="Attached Hydroids" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by mounds or mats of hydroids that are attached to a hard substrate. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-515" name="Attached Mussels" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by dense accumulations of mussels attached to a substrate other than conspecifics. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-516" name="Attached Oysters" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by fauna that consists of accumulations of oysters attached to a substrate other than conspecifics. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1219" name="Attached Sea Urchins" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard or mixed substrate areas dominated by mobile sea urchins. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-517" name="Attached Sponges" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard or mixed substrate areas that are dominated by sponges and their associated communities, e.g., where non-reef building sponge species grow attached to hard substrate or are nestled among hard substrate, or where reef-building sponges grow on hard substrates in densities that are not judged sufficient to constitute a reef. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1218" name="Attached Starfish" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard or mixed substrate areas in which starfish (sea stars) occur in large aggregations and clearly dominate the biota. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1280" name="Attached Tube-Building Fauna" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard substrate areas with a percent cover dominated by tube builders, including annelids, phoronids, sipunculids, crustaceans, gastropods, pogonophorans, echiurans, priapulids, and other phyla. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-518" name="Attached Tunicates" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by attached members of the subphylum Tunicata, known as tunicates, ascidians, or sea squirts. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-508" name="Barnacles" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by barnacles (small filter-feeding crustaceans in a protective shell that is attached to hard substrate) and associated fauna (e.g., the snail, Littorina; see Figure 8.9)."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1212" name="Brittle Stars on Hard or Mixed Substrates" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Assemblages dominated by crawling, epifaunal, crevice-dwelling brittle stars, often living on, between, or under rocks. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1281" name="Chitons" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by attached chitons, gastropod-like mollusks with eight calcareous dorsal plates (valves), a broad foot for attachment to hard substrates, and a scraping radula for feeding. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-512" name="Diverse Colonizers" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by highly varied and diverse communities of mixed fauna that have attached to a biotic or abiotic hard substrate (which may be rock, cobble, oyster reef, non-living coral reefs, or other substrates). ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1208" name="Mineral Boring Fauna" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas where specialized fauna have bored into hard mineral substrate (rock, shell, carbonate reef, peat, compacted stiff clay) and constitute the dominant biological feature by percent cover or biomass. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1213" name="Mobile Crustaceans on Hard or Mixed Substrates" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas where the epifaunal community is dominated by slow-moving crustaceans on hard or mixed substrates, often living on, between, or under rocks. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1214" name="Mobile Mollusks on Hard or Mixed Substrates" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas dominated by slow-moving mollusks, most commonly gastropods. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1215" name="Sessile Gastropods" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Hard substrate areas dominated by sessile (or mostly sessile) gastropods, often suspension feeders. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-519" name="Vent/Seep Communities" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Areas near deep-sea vents and seeps, often dominated by very large fauna (e.g., bivalves, pogonophorans) which derive nutrition from chemoautotrophic bacteria that can utilize the chemicals present in the vent or seep as an energy source. ..."/><term thcode="62" code="BC-1209" name="Wood Boring Fauna" parent="BC-425" scope="Biotic Group: Anthropogenic or natural wood substrate areas characterized or dominated by specialized fauna that have bored into the wood. ..."/></nt></descriptor>