Down in the Seagrass: Greek and Latin Roots

A Meadow Beneath the Waves

1Amara had walked through plenty of meadows, but never one under the water. Early one calm morning, her aunt Teresa steered their small boat into a warm, shallow lagoon, turned off the engine, and pointed over the side. Below the surface, long green ribbons swayed back and forth, like a field of tall grass bending in the wind.

2"That's seagrass," said Aunt Teresa, who was a marine biologist. Amara knew that bio means "life" and logy means "study of," so a biologist studies living things. Aunt Teresa had once explained that the word marine comes from the Latin root mar, which means "sea." "So I study living things in the sea," her aunt liked to say. "Mostly, I just get very wet."

3They pulled on their masks and slipped into the water. The water was so transparent that Amara could see every blade of seagrass and every grain of sand below. A tiny seahorse clung to one leaf with its curled tail, and a crab scuttled between the stems.

4Back in the boat, Aunt Teresa lowered a thermometer into the water and wrote a number in her notebook. "Therm means 'heat,' and meter means 'measure,'" she said. "I check how warm the water is every week."

5"Is seagrass the same as seaweed?" Amara asked. "Not at all," said her aunt. "Seaweed is a kind of algae, but seagrass is a true plant. It has roots, and it even grows tiny flowers. Like plants on land, it makes its own food through photosynthesis. Photo means 'light,' and synthesis means 'putting together.' The plant uses the energy in sunlight to put together its food. That's why seagrass grows in shallow water, where sunlight can reach it."

6"And why is it so green?" Amara asked. "That's chlorophyll," her aunt said. "Chloro means 'green,' and phyll means 'leaf.' Chlorophyll is the green material inside leaves that soaks up sunlight."

7Just then, a large gray shape glided toward the meadow. It was a dugong, a gentle cousin of the manatee. Amara held her breath as it lowered its whiskery snout and began to graze on the seagrass. "Dugongs are aquatic mammals," Aunt Teresa whispered. "They spend their whole lives in the water, but they breathe air, just like us." The dugong stayed submerged for a few minutes. Then it rose, poked its nostrils above the surface for a breath, and sank back down to eat.

8Before they headed home, Amara lifted her camera. "I know one more," she said. "Photograph. Photo means 'light,' and graph means 'write.' So a photograph is a picture written with light!" She snapped a photograph of the dugong's nose just as it rose for another breath.