Ocean depth zones
How Deep Is The Ocean? What Lives in the Ocean Deep? - sporcle blog
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The ocean is the largest and most poorly understood ecosystem on Earth.
The average ocean's depth is 3.7 km/12,100 ft.
Pelagic zone
Pelagic zone
The pelagic zone is comprised of the water column and is vertically classified into five series of zones (as shown on the right diagram) based on light level, each with its challenges and animals with unique abilities to survive. It's also analogous to the stratification of the Earth's atmosphere.
water column: a concept used in oceanography to describe the physical seawater characteristics at different depths
analogous: similar
The 5 zones of the pelagic zone are:
1st zone: Epipelagic/Sunlight Zone/Euphotic/Photic Zone - 200 meters
2nd zone: Mesopelagic/Twilight Zone - 200 to 1,000 meters
3rd zone: Bathypelagic/Midnight Zone - 1,000 to 4,000 meters
4th zone: Abyssopelagic/Abyssal Zone - 4,000 to 6,000 meters
5th zone: Hadalpelagic Zone - 6,000 to 11,000 meters
(part of Hadalpelagic zone) Challenger Deep - 11,000 meters
The Challenger Deep is deepest point, located in the Pacific Ocean, of the Mariana Trench.
Sunlight Zone
Sunlight Zone
Despite the Sunlight/Sunlit/Epipelatic (Greek, "epi" means upon or near)/Euphotic/Photic Zone taking up to 2 to 3% of the whole ocean, the most well-known species live there, at 200 meters.
As deep as humans can swim, it's as deep as little light seep and the first color to fade is red as it has the longest wavelength and least energy visible spectrum.
seep: flow or leak slowly through small holes
Many animals there take this as advantages, evolving into red colors to become invisible like the red Vampire Squid.
Neuston species animals, animals living at the water surface (like water striders, whirligig beetles, the Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish float which move on the surface via wind and its tentacles eta.
Microscopic animals and phytoplanktons are producers that convert water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose via photosynthesis.
Twilight Zone
Twilight Zone
Below 200 m., is the Twilight/Mesopelagic (Greek, meso means middle) Zone, when light starts to disappear and survival is hard.
Not light for photosynthesis. The food sources are instead dead materials, animal parts, dead plants, shells, and fecal (poop) matter, called marine snow, constantly sinking from above.
Some are gelatinous zooplankton, very fragile animals. 90% of animals use bioluminescence chemicals to create light in darkness to hunt and survive.
House-sized whales are devouring squids and receive permanent marks from them.
Gossamer worm swim by using its bristles like the paddle of a canoe. After eating, the meal's color will be revealed by its transparent body. bioluminescent: the process of light creation through chemical reactions
bristles: short stiff hair or whiskers of animals or plants.
Marine snows
Jellyfish relatives, siphonophores are many organisms living together in a colony, tiny animals called zooids. Nectophores are structures serving as swimming parts, Pneumatophores for buoyancy, and gastropod tentacles. Unlike other animals, if a part of them is damaged, they can clone themselves, making them almost immortal.
Another example of siphonophores is praya dubias, the longest-known animal on Earth.
They attract their preys by glowing and using their needles to kill them when coming close.
Siphonophores
Midnight Zone
Midnight Zone
Below 1,000 meters, little is known about the Midnight/Bathypelagic Zone. There is a sharp decline in biodiversity and utter darkness. Hours of traveling there and very little is seen, with gigantic animals lurking. No plants are unsustainable there. Regardless, it's far from the bottom of Earth.
Abyssal Zone
Abyssal Zone
The Abyssal/Abyssopelagic Zone is
Abyssal Plain
Abyssal Plain
The Abyssal Zone is a specific type of vast ocean floor part of the Abyssal Zone, typically at depths of 3,000-6,000 meters (9,800 to 19,700 feet). The sediment on the Abyssal Plain consists mainly of fine-grained particles, including clay and silt, which accumulate over millions of years.
Hadopelagic/Hadalpelagic/Hadal Zone
Hadopelagic/Hadalpelagic/Hadal Zone
The Hadal/Hadopelagic/Hadalpelagic Zone's name is derived from Hades in Greek religion and mythology. The Hadal Zone consists of narrow trenches. Plastic bags have been found in 2018.
Challenger Deep
Challenger Deep
11,000 meters down, a height equivalent of 36 Eiffel Tower is the Challenger Deep, in the Pacific Ocean, of the Mariana Trench. Fewer people have gone there than there are who have to the Moon. Its depth (11 km) surpasses Mt. Everest's (8.9 km).
It's named after the HMS Challenger, whose crew first explored the trench's depth in 1875. Among its deepest known fishes, are Mariana snailfishes, which can survive there where the water pressure is 801 greater than the surface due to being mostly made of water.
The ocean's buoyancy allows them to sustain gravity and allow them to grow in gigantically. Bergmann and Kleiber's rule explains these in general, which has been criticized a lot. With no main food source and food is rare down there, organisms rely on the marine snow sinking from upper zones, including the Twilight Zone as mentioned earlier.
Amphipods are found everywhere in the ocean, including the floor of the Mariana Trench. Hadal Amphipods have enzymes that can digest wood and consume almost anything falling down there. They occupy a crucial role for the ecosystem down there by recycling even the hardest materials into the environment.
Their legs have pincers with sharp edges to tear up fleshes.
Supergiant Amphipods are over 34 cm long, making them the largest known amphipod species.
Supergiant Amphipods are over 34 cm long, making them the largest known amphipod speices.
"Red Devils"/Humboldt squids are around 2.5 meters long.
Bigfin squids/Magnapinnas have thin vertical tentacles and have been speculated to grasp on their prey with tentacles from above in the dark. Nothing much is known about them regardless of that they were first found in the 2000s and only a few times since then.
The bigfin squid
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