This is the name for creatures that dwell on the ocean floor.
Benthos
An organism that creates its own energy from outside sources.
A producer
Cracks in the sea floor are called...
fissures
Falling organic matter that animals catch and eat is called...
marine snow
This is the term we use for the ocean floor.
The benthic zone
Organisms like plants makes their own food and are called
autotrophs
These occur where there are fissures in the sea floor and water seeps into the earth's crust, where the water becomes superheated and then escapes through the vents in gassy bursts.
hydrothermal vents
This type of organism is stuck in one place and collect things that come along instead of swimming or crawling to find food
filter feeders
The deepest part of the ocean that is in perpetual darkness.
The abyssopelagic zone.
Cells like bacteria that create their own energy from nonorganic materials instead of sunlight are called...
chemoautotrophs
This type of bacteria gathers near hydrothermal vents
archaebacteria
These creatures anchor themselves to the sand and then pop their bodies out of the sea floor to catch small prey as it drifts by. They look like a garden of grass swaying in the current.
garden eels
The bathypelagic zone.
The organisms that gather near underwater vents are called
archebacteria
Animals that graze on mats of archaebacteria
tiny deep-sea shrimp
Name a creature that this chapter mentioned that survives by using or eating bacteria.
Acceptable answers: the calyptogena magnifica clam, the yeti crab, tube worms, deep sea shrimp
Organisms like flounders, rays, octopus, and others that stay near the ocean floor but also swim up and away from the ocean floor are called...
nektobenthos
What type of organisms are plants and algae considered?
photo-autotrophs
This is one place where chemoautotrophs act as producers
hydrothermal vents
organisms that break down decaying matter
detritivores
(found on page 89)