1. (used with a sing. verb) A theory that explains the global distribution of geological phenomena such as seismicity, volcanism, continental drift, and mountain building in terms of the formation, destruction, movement, and interaction of the earth's lithospheric plates. 2. (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The dynamics of plate movement.
Despite the fact that mollusks are very susceptible to changes in their environment because of their permeable skin and soft body (often with an exoskeleton in the form of a shell), they have adapted to all of the main environments of our planetâmarine, freshwater, and terrestrial. With 41% of the 736 documented extinctions of all animal species, the number of mollusks exceeds that of any other major taxonomic group 3. 2  Most documented endangered mollusk species are non marine (they live in freshwater or terrestrial environments) 5.
Ecological Role of Stingrays. Research has established stingrays of every variety as upper-level predators, meaning that they hunt and consume other animals, even those that consume other organisms themselves.lthough they are widely distributed, stingrays prefer warm waters. Stingrays adapted to saltwater environments live in temperate and tropical ocean zones, including open bays and regions near coastlines.They may be divided into categories depending on the ocean depths they occupy.