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6 Biol Oceanogr - Deep Sea Environment

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16 views18 pages

6 Biol Oceanogr - Deep Sea Environment

Uploaded by

Abigail Valencia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Deep Sea Environment & Ecology

UP MSI & HGP Bangi notes


Deep Sea Environment

• aphotic
• permanently cold, dark waters
• 85-90% of the ocean water
• largest habitat, but least known and explored
• deep submersible vehicles allowed at least a portion
of the area to be explored
Photic zone

Aphotic zone

Aphotic zone:
Tropical waters: start at 600 m
Temperate waters: start at 100 m
Higher number
of organisms

-----------------
fewer number
of organisms;
Organisms tend
to be white w/
reduced eyes;
w/ bioluminiscent
organs

Hadal – little is known


about this
1. Light
- aphotic (‘without light”); photosynthesis not possible; light produced by the
animals themselves; animals rely on their senses to find food and mates
Light Organ Patterns
- species specific

‘Photophores’ – scattered
in the body;
• allows individuals
to recognize their own species
• maintain schools
• find potential mates
2. Pressure - shows the greatest range among the environmental factors
- atmosphere = 14.7 lb/in2 for every 100m depth
range: 20- 1000 atm
- Effect on organisms not well studied bec. of difficulty in sampling
- Affects on organisms based on initial experiments

3. Salinity
- constant through depth; there are some minor differences but none can be
considered ecologically significant

4. Temperature
- below thermocline is isothermal (below 3,000 – 4,000m)
- thermocline: area of greatest and most rapid change in temperature; below this
is cold and far more homogenous water mass (isothermal)
Isothermal
(homogenous)
TEMPERATE
Amount of light varies
seasonally

TROPICAL
Upper waters lighted
throughout the year;
productivity low but
constant throughout the
year

POLAR
Summer – high prod.;
high light; low ice

The thermal structure and extent of mixing in temperate, tropical and polar seas during
the four seasons of the year.

(MIXING of the deep and surface waters occur when density difference is low or absent;
NO MIXING when density difference is great)
Deep water masses
(isolated from the wind)

Atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean

✓ Dense waters are all cold and produced at


the surface;
They have large amounts of O2 which are
transported to the depths
✓ Without this O2, deep water could be
anoxic
✓ When deep water surfaces, it brings with
Pacific Ocean it large amount of nutrients necessary for
productivity
5. Oxygen

Oxygen minimum zone –


where most organisms
are found

The change in DO with depth in the eastern tropical Pacific oceans (dashed line)
and tropical Atlantic (solid line)
6. Food
- no primary production; chemosynthesis only
- produced elsewhere transported to deep sea
a. fecal pellets
b. carcasses
c. chitinous molts
d. particulate organic matter
-the deeper the less food (fewer organisms)
- bacterial action to breakdown particles not suitable as food
( e.g. molts)
- high densitites of benthic infaunal organisms
Food source

Marine snow – “gelatinous plankton matter” (DOM)


Feeding Adaptations

• Large mouths (bec. of food scarcity)


• wider opening of mouth enabling capture
and swallowing of large prey
• Long teeth (to ensure catching)

• Angler fish before and after swallowing fish


Feeding Adaptations (continued…)
✓ Color – silvery gray or deep black (fish)
purple or bright red (invertebrates)
WHY? These colors will be invisible
or appear black at depths (e.g., red is
first to be absorbed in seawater)
✓ Eyes large – give maximum light collecting
abilities
✓ Tubular eyes – two retinas (base and wall)
✓ Dimorphic eyes – e.g., certain squids (one
larger than the other; one directed
upward, one smaller downward)

Reproduction
In Angler fish, female is larger than male;
male is parasitic attached to the body of the
female; males always present to provide
sperm
Faunal Composition in deep sea

✓ Relatively all major groups


have representatives

✓Relative abundance vary


✓Crustaceans (isopods,
amphipods) common

✓ Polychaete worm abundant


✓Sea cucumbers, brittle stars
usually common and large in
size

✓Starfish, sea lilies, sea urchins


also present but not abundant
Species Diversity – low but might increase as sampling effort increase
Life Cycle

• Shallow water – reproductive


is seasonal
• Deep sea – reproduction is
constant and continuous
throughout the year, with no
seasonal peaks

• Since food is scarse, offspring


is also few
(few large eggs, short or no
larval life except fish)

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