The jellyfish are among the animals that live in the mesopelagic zone. They have an advantageous adaptation that prevent them from being located by predators. Due its transparent color these animals are invisible to predators in dark environments. Other animals that inhabit the mesopelagic zone are squids, shrimps and worms.
3.3 Bathypelagic zone
The bathypelagic zone is an area that comprises depths between 1,000 and 4,000 meters deep in the Atlantic Ocean. If the mesopelagic zone had almost no sunlight this zone is completely dark, that is, it is part of the aphotic zone since not receive any light incidence. The temperatures in the mesopelagic zone revolves around 4 degrees Celsius in the surface parte until 2 degrees Celsius in the
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lower parts. Due the profundity, the pressure in this zone is much higher if compared with the zone immediately above it. Animals that live in these areas are organisms such as vampire squid, giant squid, lemon stars, amphipods, eels, monkfish, fish snake dragon and oarfish.
These animals are heterotrophic and depend of the oxygen and organic matter that is dissolved and which decays of the upper zones.
3.4 Abyssopelagic zone
Abyssopelagic zone is localized in a profundity of 4,000 meters until the seafloor. This is an area that the incidence of sunlight is impossible due the high profundity and where the pressure reaches number extremely high. The temperature in this zone also is low, which result in icy waters. Because of this a small quantity of animals are capable to live in this areas and the animals that accomplish this difficult task usually has some adaptations that allow them to survive.
Some animals present in the abyssopelagic zone are some species of echinoderms such as sea cucumber and pig-fish, some types of squid and arthropods like the sea spider. The adaptation that some species of squid have is the coloring transparent of their body allowing them to become invisible to their prey in dark environments such as the abyssopelagic zone. Others animals in turn do not have eyes as these are not used in total darkness
environments. The fish of the abyssal zone have a different look because your body has gone through several alterations that allowed them to live in more than 4.000 meters deep environments. Some of these fish the adaptation of bioluminescence that is used to attract mates for reproduction and prey to their feeding. Other animals may have large stomachs allowing you to store a lot of food that already in the abyssal zone the availability of resources and very limited. 3.5 Hadopelagic zone This zone this just below the abyssal zone and make it shares the oceanic trenches. The ocean trenches are areas in that formed due to divergent tectonic plate movement and they are located in the mid-ocean ridges. The ocean trenches of Puerto Rico is an example this geological formation located in the Atlantic Ocean that has a depth of more than 9,000 meters and is nothing more than a deep subsea depression. Similar to abyssal zone, that zone does not occur penetration of light, temperatures of the waters are very cold and the pressure in this area is absurdly high so a very limited number of animals can survive in these environments. The hadopelagic zone has some hydrothermal vents (Figure 4) due your localization in the oceanic trenches, this places are the probably inhabit of some animals like tube worms, clams, mussels, crabs and shrimp.
T. californicus is found from Alaska to Baja in small, shallow tidepools and tidal flats in the upper spray zone where they cannot avoid the full effect of visible and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Individuals assemble in areas of lower radiation at midday, yet have no preference to the intensity of light at dawn and dusk (Hartline and Macmillan 1995). These tiny arthropods inhabit all types of marine sediments from sand to fine mud and ooze. Along with plankton, T. californicus eats microscopic algae, protists, bacteria, diatoms, algae and microbes (McGroarty 1958). When the concentrations of the species in their habitats are high, T. californicus will turn to cannibalism for a food source. The nautilus eye present in the species is rich with fatty acids and provides a good food source for the animal.
Shrimp can be very intelligent animals and have very amazing things such as being clear, this may seem weird but yes, they are clear. Shrimp live in the ocean and come in contact with many different plants animals. The most common plant that the shrimp comes in contact the most with and use for protection is seaweed, coral, and algae. Shrimp use the for protection to hide from the other animals they depend on shrimp for their diet, most of these animals are sharks, whales and sometimes crabs are included. The change of having no eyes helps the shrimp hide from these and keeps the population at a good rate and this has also helped overfishing with not having contact with other animals and causing lots of movement to the other animals and fisherman.
While the trophic level of primary producers is of autotrophs, the next remaining levels all represent heterotrophs. Heterotrophs can only obtain their energy by consuming of other organisms. In the tropic level of the primary consumers, these herbivores depend on these primary producers and other plants for their food. An example of a primary consumer is the larvae of chironomids, or a type of aquatic insect.
Because of farm fertilizer, an excess quantity of nitrogen and phosphorus can be wash down becoming runoff into rivers. From this, marine algal blooms cause the water to turn green from the chlorophyll (Reed, 2011). Eutrophication then becomes a dilemma in the system causing either an increase of primary production or an expansion of algae. An enormous expansion of phytoplankton on the water’s surface is then established. At the same time the water column is also stratified, meaning things such as the temperature and salinity are not sync from top to bottom. The seasonal warm surface water has a low density forming a saltier layer above while the cooler and more dense water masses near the bottom layer is isolated from the top cutting off oxygen supply from the atmosphere (Overview, 2008).
In the coral reef habitat, food consumption is based on sunlight. The sunlight gives food to the plants, bacteria and algae, which is eaten by the plant eaters or herbivores, such as parrotfishes. The bigger carnivores, such as the Whitetip Reef Shark, in the ecosystem then eat those fishes along with the bacteria and plankton in the water. On the other hand, the deep sea is based on dead animal bodies or waste, shown in the fake whale carcass in the deep sea exhibit. Organisms of the deep sea feed on waste because sunlight does not have the ability to reach that deep in the ocean. Nektons are the fishes that feed on the waste produced by the epipelagic zone.
Giant squid, of which there are many different species, have been spotted less than fifty times in the last century, but none have been seen in their natural habitat, the depths of the sea, or caught on tape. It was initially thought that squids only lived very deep in the ocean from 200-1000 meters beneath the surface, an area very difficult for scientists to study. Why then have these squids been seen at the ocean’s surface?
So photophores is a light some deep sea fish have which helps in complete darkness. Photophores help fish get away from pretadors. So the fish "turn on" its light one place then "turn off " the light and shine in another place confusing the predator giving it time to escape.So many deep see fish have small eyes or are blind because there is no light down there. These fish usally, you could say sense when things are around them so they really dont need their eyes. Gelatinous skeleton is a skeleton that is very soft and mushy but still holds a type of shape. These fish have gelatinous skeletons becuase of the high pressure underwater if a human were to go down there they would die from the pressure. That is only some adaptions deep sea fish have and deeep sea fish are not the only fish with adaptations in their
Viperfish has its own scientific name, Chauliodus Sloani. It lives in the darkest depth of the sea in the range between 250 to 5000 feet in the daytime and shallower depths at night, primarily in tropical and temperate waters. Viperfish only grows up to 60 centimetres . However, they possess extremely over-grown teeth which is very useful for hunting prey. This fierce creature has developed a specialize hunting technique that is perfect for deep ocean floor where there is no light. This fish generates its own light and uses it to attract prey through a process known as bioluminescence . Viperfish has several light-generating-organs along the side of its body called the photophores. They also have a long spine in their back with another photophores at the end of it. They mainly use the photophores to communicate with other members of the species such as when they are attracting mate .
Sperm whales will occasionally hunt at this zone for giant squid. Vampire squid(Vampyroteuthis) is the most commonly seen mollusk in this depth. Vampyroteuthis is about the size of a football. It’s body is the colour of dark red and the eyes are blue. Vampyroteuthis is also have the ability to turn itself inside-out. The snake dragon fish is known for one of the most forceful predator in the Bathypelagic zone. Similar to anglerfish, the snake dragon fish also use bioluminescence to attract prey.The anglerfish is the most well known in the Bathypelagic zone for its enormous mouth and a lure that is almost acting like a headlight. It not only have terrifying sharp long teeth on the jaws, but in its throat as well. (Marinebio,
[9] Deep sea and extreme shallow water habitats: affinities and adaptions by Franz Uiblein, Jorg Ott and Michael Stacowitsh 1996
Below is a table of the different trophic states, or levels of organic matter in relation to available oxygen, that a body of water traverses on its way to becoming a "dead zone".
The sponge is described as having a twig-like structure. It is able to survive and thrive on the cold ocean floor, feeding on small crustaceans. Their hunting method sounds like something out of a horror movie. The sponges cling to soft, muddy sediment on the ocean floor to freely move around. They use whip-like barbs that snatch prey right as they are swimming, slowly absorbing them into its body. The process takes a mere couple hours to completely absorb and digest the helpless animals and leave nothing behind bu...
The Mariana Trench is so deep that ocean currents do not affect its microorganisms making it evolutionarily isolated, therefore making it of great interest to biologists, geologists, and evolutionary scientists (Kaplan). A mathematically derived equation estimates that a third of all prokaryotic life on Earth is contained in the deep sea trench across the globe. These extremophiles, due to the ability to live in high pressure and high temperature near hydrothermal vents, are important for the possibilities of curing diseases or even understanding life on other planets (Mayer). Hydrothermal vent organisms, however, are very hard to study by scientists due to several factors. First, any light or movement disturbs the organisms of study. Th...