Sunday, October 10, 2010

Overview of the Deep Sea biome

90% of all the world's oceans is taken up by the deep sea biome. Deep sea occurs below 200 metres in depth. Between 500 and 600 m below sea level there is a blue light which is too weak to support plant life. Below this comes total darkness. The water in the deep sea is hovering around zero degrees, often going a few degrees below. Because of the lack of water cirulation ther is very little oxygen in the deep sea. This lack of oxygen, low temperature, extreme pressure, and lack of available nutrients means that the organisms that live there have to move very slowly to comserve energy. The deep sea is divided into five layers:

Mesopelagic zone (200 to 700-1000m in depth)-scarce light
Bathypelagic zone (1000-3000m)-total darkness starts
Abyssopelagic zone (3000-6000m)-60% of Earth's surface, 83% of total ocean area, -4 ºC
Hadalpelagic zone (6000-11,000m)-deepest ocean trenches only, most unknown to us due to pressure
Hydrothermal vents (1500-3200m)-"underwater volcanoes", vents in crust shoot up heat (150-200ºC) from lava, minerals deposit around vents creating cone-like structures

For this project I will examine the relationships between 3 organisms and their environments for every layer listed above.