1 / 37

Deep Sea Habitats

Deep Sea Habitats. Marine Biology Dr. Ouida Meier. Factors Driving Deep Sea Systems. High pressure (1 atm/33 ft) Low temperature (4 ◦ C) Depth Lack of sunlight Lack of photosynthesis Scarcity of food resources Enormous volume of water further reduces encounter probability (mates, prey).

Jeffrey
Download Presentation

Deep Sea Habitats

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Deep Sea Habitats Marine Biology Dr. Ouida Meier

  2. Factors Driving Deep Sea Systems • High pressure (1 atm/33 ft) • Low temperature (4◦C) • Depth • Lack of sunlight • Lack of photosynthesis • Scarcity of food resources • Enormous volume of water further reduces encounter probability (mates, prey)

  3. Deep Sea biota • 75% of sea floor is below 3000 m depth • Imported nutrients from photic zone • Seasonal pulses of organic matter • Seafloor communities low biomass but surprisingly high biodiversity • Most benthic organisms in the deep sea (polychaetes, arthropods, molluscs, echinoderms) survive on detritus in sediment • Low biomass but high diversity of fish species (why?): scavengers and predators

  4. Factors Driving Hydrothermal Vent Systems • High pressure • Low temperature • Depth • Lack of sunlight • Lack of photosynthesis • Scarcity of food resources • Enormous volume of water further reduces encounter probability Counteracted by: • Chemosynthetic bacteria (primary producers) • Hot, mineral-rich water • Location – advantages and disadvantages

  5. Succession in Hydrothermal Vents • New vent forms at diverging plates • Chemosynthetic bacteria • Amphipods, copepods • Grazers/filter feeders: limpets, clams, mussels • Scavengers: vent crabs, worms, fish • Predators: vent crabs, octopi • Symbiotic with primary producers (bacteria): vestimentiferan worms, giant clams • 1. Tevnia jerichonana • 2. Riftia pachyptilia Longevity of vent itself estimated at years to decades

  6. Factors Driving Methane Vent (Cold Seep) Systems • High pressure • Low temperature • Depth • Lack of sunlight • Lack of photosynthesis • Scarcity of food resources • Enormous volume of water further reduces encounter probability Counteracted by: • Chemosynthetic bacteria (primary producers) • Cold, mineral-rich water • Location – advantages and disadvantages

  7. Bioluminescence • http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/~biolum/chem/ Luciferin + Luciferase + O2 -> Oxyluciferin + light or Photoprotein + Ca2+ -> light

  8. Deep Sea and Midwater Creatures Reportedly brought to surface or washed ashore in Phuket following the earthquake and tsunami of 26 Dec. 2004. Origin and authorship of photos unknown: these were circulated via email with no references given. Captions are taken from titles of images.

  9. Aphyonous

  10. Basketwork eel

  11. Black dragonfish

  12. Blind lobster

  13. Blob fish

  14. Carrier shell

  15. Chimaera fish

  16. Chimaera pup

  17. Coffinfish

  18. Crab

  19. Fangtooth

  20. Firefly squid

  21. Gunard

  22. Hatchetfish

  23. Lizard fish

  24. Oreo dory

  25. Prickly shark

  26. Sea spider

  27. Shovel nosed lobster

  28. Stargazer

  29. Stone crab

  30. Swimmer crab

  31. Tongue sole

  32. Umbrella mouth gulper eel

  33. Viperfish

More Related