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Marine Ecosystems. Open Ocean. Open Ocean Habitat. The Open Ocean, or Pelagic Zone, consists everything in the ocean outside of the coastal areas. The demersal zone is everything in the ocean near the sea floor or the coast. . Layers of the Pelagic Zone.
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Marine Ecosystems Open Ocean
Open Ocean Habitat • The Open Ocean, or Pelagic Zone, consists everything in the ocean outside of the coastal areas. The demersal zone is everything in the ocean near the sea floor or the coast.
Layers of the Pelagic Zone. The Pelagic Zone is divided into sections creating A number of sub-zones based on their different ecological characteristics.
Layers of the Pelagic Zone. Continued. • Epipelagic Zone • Mesopelagic Zone (the twilight zone) • Bathypelagic Zone • Abyssopelagic Zone • Hadopelagic Zone
Epipelagic Zone • from the surface (MSL) down to around 200 m • Has enough light for photosynthesis • Plants and animals are largely concentrated in this zone - Here one will typically fish such as tuna and numerous number of sharks, as well as dolphins and jellyfish.
Mesopelagic Zone • From 200 m down to around 1000 m • Some light penetrates this deep, but it is insufficient for photosynthesis. • Animals such as swordfish, squids, wolfish, and a few species of cuttlefish live here.
Bathypelagic Zone • From 1000 m down to 4000 m • Almost entirely dark • Has no living plants • Giant squid lives in this depth, and here they are hunted by the sperm whales.
Abyssopelagic Zone • From 4000 m down to above the ocean floor • No light whatsoever penetrates this depth • Most creatures are blind and colorless
Hadopelagic Zone • The deep water in the trenches • Mostly unknown, very few species are known to live there.
Biotic Factors Algae, Plankton, and Plants
Phytoplankton • Phytoplankton are abundant in the open ocean and are a major food source for many of the species that live in the pelagic zone, which includes whales and dolphins. They are most common in the Epipelagic zone, as the Mesopelagic zone and below cannot provide sufficient amounts of light required for photosynthesis. Some of the plankton found in the ocean are dinoflagellates and diatoms.
Zooplankton • Cnidarians are the main zooplankton that live in the open ocean, including the gelatinous sea butterfly and the comb jelly. These drifters feed off of other cnidarians and other zooplankton, but are uncommon in the open ocean due to a lack of nutrients and phytoplankton. • Pelagic crabs are also a common sight in the open ocean, traveling in large masses and serving as a another food source for whales.
Plants • Plant life, aside from phytoplankton, is very scarce. One of the only types of plant life located in the open ocean is the surface seaweed, which drifts through the ocean and provides a habitat for zooplankton and small marine species.
Bitotic Factors Invertebrates
Invertebrates that dwell in the open ocean include members of the phylum cnidaria and phylum chordata. The Portuguese Man o’ War and Salps are both examples of invertebrates that reside in the open ocean. Salps pump water through their body as they swim and, straining out the water and feeding on the phytoplankton that is left behind. The Portuguese Man O’ War, despite looking like a single jellyfish, is actually a colony of polyps and medusae. Other invertebrates of the open ocean include squid, tuna, billfish, and other fish.
Biotic Factors Vertebrates
Only 10 percent of all marine species live in the open ocean. • Whales and dolphins drift in and out of the pelagic zone whilst feeding on krill, crabs and other plankton. • Another common vertebrate found in the open ocean is the sea turtle, one of which is the Loggerhead.
Community InteractionCompetition • The open ocean covers a vast amount of the earth. Within it there is much competition between organisms. Competition is the simultaneous demand by two or more organisms for limited environmental resources, such as nutrients, living space, or light. Sharks for instance prey on a variety of different organisms from plankton, to small fish, to large animals. Sharks are at the highest intensity to the competition and viewed as the biggest threat. Competition between whales also occurs in this habitat due to there size and depending on the type, how they travel. Competition occurs between animals for territory as well.
Community InteractionSymbiosis • Symbiosis is an association between two or more organisms that may, but don’t necessarily have to, benefit each other. There are four forms of symbiosis: amensalism is when one species is harmed or inhibited and the other species is unaffected, commensalisms is when two organisms of different species in which one derives some benefit while the other is unaffected , mutualism is when two different species in which each member benefits, and parasitism is when one organism (the parasite) benefits and the other (the host) is generally harmed. The hermit crab lives in a discarded shell, and has a sea anemone on the outside of the shell. Both organisms benefit from each other in that the crab is protected and the anemone has a food supply. Fish called wrasses living in the Indian and Pacific oceans act as cleaners for bigger fish. They eat parasites, such as fish-lice, on the bodies of the larger fish, thus keeping it clean. Whale barnacles also are a sign of symbiosis.
Food Web • The open ocean food web is very diverse. • Plankton serve as one of the largest food sources in the ocean.
Plankton is the keystone species but there are two different kinds. One is phytoplankton, a plant-like plankton. Zooplankton is the animal-like type. If you take out either one the open ocean ecosystem would collapse as they are both major food sources for smaller fish squids and other ocean creatures which are preyed upon by animals higher up on the trophic scale. Keystone Species
Open Ocean Threats • Human use of water • Waste from cruise ships and military vessels
Importance of the Open Ocean We get a number of things from the open ocean, oxygen being just one. The many creatures of the open ocean are a major food source for humans and provide us with many essential nutrients and items. The ocean aids transportation- without it, we would not be able to sail the sea for traveling purposes or for transporting goods.
