The Open Ocean

1. The Open Ocean The Atlantic By: Heather Smith and Elizabeth Mynhier

2. Climate • The ocean’s climate is very diverse depending on what latitude you are at. • In the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, the weather is relatively calm and cold. The Antarctic is the colder of the two because it has more landmass, which can freeze. • The tropics near the equator stay warm and have a wet and a dry season. This are is also home to the doldrums. • The places in between can have raging storms and hurricanes, or calm weather. There are four seasons.

3. Producers in the Open Ocean • Photic Zone • Green, red, brown, and fire algaes • Sea weed • Disphotic Zone and Aphotois Zone • Phytoplankton • Bacteria and other small organisms that produce energy from the small amount of light in the deep ocean. • Archaea • Living in Hydrothermal vents, they are one of the only known chemosynthisisers. They are adapted to turn chemicals in their surroundings into energy.

4. Consumers in the Open Ocean • Photic Zone: • Manatee • They are an endangered species, but can adapt to warmer climates. • Green Sea Turtles • They are long-migration animals, and are endangered.

5. Consumers in the Open Ocean • Disphotic Zone: • Starfish • Angelfish • Octupus • Sea Anemone • Aphotois Zone • Sperm Whale • Conch • Squid

6. Human Effects • An estimated 100 million tons of trash is floating in the middle of the North Pacific, and covers an area twice the size of the United States. • On isolated beaches in Hawaii, two-foot deep sand is actually 80 per cent plastic bits now. • Cruise Ships create 197,400 gallons of waste as well as a ton of garbage a day, incinerating 75-85% of it which releases harmful chemicals into the air, and dumping ask and sewage sludge directly into the ocean.

7. Human Effects • Near the Southern Atlantic gyre, scientists “counted hundreds of large floating objects, including fishing buoys, nets, buckets, crates, water bottles and construction hard hats”. • The largest amount of plastic content in the atlantic—83%—is in an area known as the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, reaching from the latitude of Baltimore to that of the Bahamas

8. Protection for the Open Ocean • Many Marine Animals are put on the endangered species list. • The Mid-Atlantic Council on the Ocean (MARCO) is working to get the ocean conditions improved. • It’s area stretches from New York to Virginia • Sea turtle proof-nets have been produced.

9. Protection for the Open Ocean • Sea turtle proof-nets have been produced.

10. Natural Capital • Petroleum • Sand and gravel aggregates • Salt Water • Campbell's soup? • Fishing • Whaling  • Shark fishing • Large net fishing

11. Bibliography • http://seagrant.gso.uri.edu/factsheets/phytoplankton.html • http://www.alternet.org/story/77501/first_map_of_human_impacts_on_oceans_released • http://www.alternet.org/story/77501/first_map_of_human_impacts_on_oceans_released • http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/cruise-ship-pollution-460810 • http://www.americanrecycler.com/0211/798plastic.shtml • http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/plastic-pollution-in-the-atlantic-ocean?news=841327 • http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/ocean/twilight • http://oceana.org/sites/default/files/o/fileadmin/oceana/uploads/turtles/Trouble4Turtles_WebFinal.pdf • http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01219/will%20stuff.htm • http://www.earthsendangered.com/list.asp • http://students.umf.maine.edu/katie.l.thomas/public.www/Oceans%20Webpage/Atlantic%20Ocean/Atlantic%20Ocean%20Creatures%20Webpage.html