Mary Florence "Molly" Mare (10 July 1914 – 27 August 1997),[1] married name Spooner, was a British marine biologist who introduced the term meiobenthos in 1942.
[4] Mare's study[5][2] of marine food cycle in sea mud led her to introduce the new term meiobenthos to join the terminology of macrobenthos and microbenthos.
[3] This has to allow improved understanding of marine organisms involved in these cycles through clearer reference to groupings by size.
[6] Following the grounding of the oil tanker Torrey Canyon on the west of the Scilly Isles, Mare returned to her life as a researcher after taking a break during the 1950s.
After she retired from active research in 1976, she was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1977 for her work on the effect of oil pollution on marine life.