Life in a Brine Basin

In the deep sea evolution is often thought to happen much slower. Filter feeding squigglepus and archaic squims live long lives off of small plankton, larvae, and marine snow aggregate. These species are successful and have changed little since their development in the early Cetiocene. Aether now has many biomes that harbor life and and promote speciation, complex ecologies are forming within these heavily populated regions such as, xelp forests, kelt reefs, bouyxanth rafts and most recently intertidal biomes with mangrove like xanthopyte trees. The deep ocean is one in the same, hydrothermal vents, cold seeps, and brine pools can support a succession of species, encouraging competition and even high degrees of speciation at paces rivaling even the shallows!

These oases of the benthic have formed multi-tiered biomes thanks to Aether's high gravity which pulls the ocean crust deep forming brine pools plateaus on terrain sloping ever deeper. Looking close on a particularly deep brine pool, outside the range of most pelagic squim, here even squigglpie are absent. Rocky outcrops shelter the core components of deep sea life bordered by lakes of lifeless brine. Chemosynthetic microbes form mats in glyph like rings around bubbling cold seeps. Chemosynthetic life on the edge is nourished by the wafting ammonia and hydrogen sulfide creating a stark contrast with the lifeless pools of hypersaline brine. The few squim here steer clear to avoid toxic shock, but the filter feeing anthoceps descendants that line such brine pools have special adaptations within high salinity conditions.On top of feeding on plankton their nutrition is supplemented by symbiotic bacteria that allow them to gain a portion of their nutrients through chemosynthesis.

A somewhat distant relative to the feathery brine feeders, upside down lumpkins reigns over the benthic. Lumpkins evolved from the anthoceps linage, their predatory arms now repurposed for walking across the sediment. And walk they do! Upside-down lumpkins are always feeding as they walk and travel in search of more seeps. Lumpkins too have unique morphology to spend their entire lives in these regions, though they dare not tempt the brine; Adult upside down lumpkins easily mow mats of chemosynthetic microbes claiming broad territories of up to six seeps, the upside down have abandoned radial symmetry in that they now have a front defined by two large scraping claws, their mouth is on the bottom of their body allowing them to eat what they scrape up as they walk forward. It should be noted that upside-down lumpkins evolved first in the photic zone their, success has allowed them to spread far and deep throughout Aether's oceans.

Deep sea upside down lumpkins breed once a year, the males will abandon their territories in search of the nomadic females, all but ancestorial lumpkins mate directly rather than broadcast spawning. This resulted as a reaction to crowded living conditions in a, the benefit from this change is the female upside down lumpkins can save sperm to produce 100,000's of eggs from a single male. These eggs are then released into the current as they are produced, the female lumpkin wanders far throughout this process causing the species to achieve a large range across many distant seep formations. 

Altogether, many species around such bountiful seeps employ r-selection strategies to ensuring successive generations indirectly supplying a large portion of their own and many other species diets. This coupled with the greater presence of hydrothermal activity on Aether makes for a particularly lively benthic.

The squiggins is a squim that is a direct descendent of the squigglepus. The species evolved by adapting to filter feed around hydrothermal vent communities, essentially the squiggins coasts above seep communities - translucent cape of mucus in tow - combing the waters for disturbed nutrients before they settle. The frequency of r-selection around these oases means that eggs and larvae make up a significant portion of its diet. Another adaptation is further forking of not just its tentacles, but also a forked dorsal jaw. Much like the squigglepus, the tentacles lack the fine moter control earth cephalopods possess, with the exception of the dorsal jaw pair, which opposable and sensitive allowing a high degree of utility. More than ever squiggins have control over the constructions of their nets, net construction can very across species and even individuals with many different variations present. Driven by instinct squiggins some might construct compartments to funnel swimming plankton, others construct flat and fuzzy nets with with high surface areas for general filter feeding, and those outside of communities work with what little plankton they can catch using porous nets with many layers.

Squiggens might appear to threaten the squigglepus but a key difference presents this from happening: squigglepus larvae resemble other squims and can live close to the surface in many different habitats before moving to the twilight zone. The squiggins in contrast is a more permanent resident of the deep, their young resemble miniature adults. However, they do differ in feeding behavior as juvenile squiggins create a bubble like net and use their feathery dorsal jaws to create currents and filter plankton from the water. Squiggins too utilize r-selection as juvenile squiggins are vulnerable to predation, protected only by their translucency; however by the time squiggins switch from ball nets to cape nets, they are much safer, as in the rare event of a predator encounter adult squiggins drop their mucus nets at a dime and speed to safety and with little regret as Aether's seep communities provide enough nutrients to afford construction of a new net from scratch.

Finally, green tripod squim sit just off of the sea floor balanced on pectoral fins, they feed on swimming plankton and detritus but not the mats that make up the upsidedown lumpkin's diet allowing the two species coexist; though tripod squim will not sleep on the opportunity to slurp up any young lumpkins that pass them by. Chemosythetic microorganisms are abundant on Aether, and thanks to a greater density of vents, due very well resulting in deep sea organisms that hold the potential of supporting multiple trophic levels. This increase in ecosystem productivity across reefs, the arctic, and even the deep sea is resulting in more efficient carbon cycling which is having a profound effect on Aether's climate, stabilizing the cycle of ice ages the planet has been experiencing. In other words, as a result ecological systems forming Aether is becoming more habitable, and life is becoming faster paced, across all oceans, and soon continents...

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