Mesopelagic Zone
What level of light does the mesopelagic zone have?
The mesopelagic zone has low levels of light which makes it impossible for photosynthetic organisms to survive.
Will species amount increase or decrease as temperature and depth go down.
Pelagic life is found throughout the water column, although the numbers of individuals and species decrease with increasing depth.
Name a very imortant variable in biodiversity in the deep parts of the ocean.
One important variable that changes with Ocean depth is light availability
What is hydrothermal vent?
A hydrothermal vent is a deep-sea hot spring where heated seawater forces its way up through the crust.
Where are cold seeps usually found.
Cold seeps are places mostly along continental margins or in sediment-rich basins like the Gulf of Mexico.
What factors decrease and increase at this depth?
Light, oxygen, and temperature decrease with depth in this zone as salinity and pressure increase
What do many Deep sea pelagic fish have in common?
Numerous deep-sea pelagic fish have amazingly long fang-like teeth that point inward. This guarantees that any prey captured has small chance of escape.
What bus the most extensive habitat in the ocean?
The deep sea is the most extensive habitat on our planet, and it supports surprisingly high biodiversity
Why are hydrothermal vents helpful?
This vent helps deep sea oceans because it helps regulate the ocean chemistry and circulation.
Describe a cold seep
An example of a cold seep would be an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane, and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool
The mesopelagic zone extends from 200 to 1,000 meters below the surface of the ocean. This area is known as the twilight zone as it is between epipelagic zone. This sits between the epipelagic zone which receive the most light.
What type of conditions do deep sea species live?
These creatures must survive in extremely harsh conditions, such as hundreds of bars of pressure, small amounts of oxygen, very little food, no sunlight, and constant, extreme cold
What type of species are in the deep parts of the ocean?
Some bottom feeders that dominate the ocean depths are flatfish, eels, cod, haddock, bass, grouper, carp, bream and some species of catfish and shark. More bottom feeders are sponges, sea anemones, tube worms, barnacles and other smaller animals
How long do hydrothermal vents last.
They become inactive when seafloor-spreading moves them away from the rising magma or when they become clogged. Some vent fields may remain active for 10,000 years, but individual vents are much shorter-lived.
How long do cold seeps last?
As long as there is some sulfide in the sediment, the sulfide-mining tubeworms can persist. Individuals of one tubeworm species Lamellibrachia luymesi have been estimated to live for over 250 years in such conditions.