Transcript Organisms of the DEEP OCEAN

Organisms of the DEEP OCEAN
Hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor
support a diversified and vibrant
ecosystem.
The energy to run the ecosystem does
not come from the sun, but from
chemical energy released from earth.
Hydrothermal vents (“Black
Smokers”)
The PRODUCERS in this food chain
are not green plants, but
endosymbiotic bacteria living within
the tissue of tube worms and clams.
Endo= within, inside
Symbiotic= working for the
benefit of both.
The endosymbiotic bacteria,
Arcobacter sulfidicus, uses
Chemosynthesis rather than
Photosynthesis as their means of
trapping and converting energy.
Chemosynthesis basically means
“energy from chemicals”
Some Deep Sea Consumers
Vent Tubeworms,
Riftia pachyptila
These worms get
their energy from
the bacteria living
in their tissues.
A colony of tube worms and clams
The grappling arm from Alvin takes
a sample of tubeworms.
Pompeii worms: They attach themselves to
black smokers. This worm is known as the
most heat tolerant complex animal. It's able
to survive over 150 degrees
Celsius. They are pale grey
with hairy backs. These
hairs are colonies of bacteria.
The bacteria feed on mucus
from the worms back.
Giant Vent Clams
(Calyptogena magnifica)
A filter feeder,
it also has the
bacteria within its
body, allowing it
to feed and grow
very rapidly.
The Vent Crab,
Bythograea thermydron
Consumer, eats vent worms, as
well as vent clams and any fish
it can catch.
About 5 inches
across in size.
A small
army of
crabs
covers the
sea floor
A vent crab dining on tube worms.
The Pink Eelpout Fish,
Melanostigma pammelas
Consumer, eats vent worms
and other organisms
Size: up to 2 feet
in length
Small eelpouts among the tube
worms on a vent.
Spiny Spider Crab,
Maja brachydactyla
Consumer, eats
Vent worms,
clams, and fish
Size, up to 3 feet
across
Spider crabs hunting on a bed of
mussels and clams.
Lavender Octopus (Graneldone sp.)
A predator,
it eats crabs,
clams, and
fish.
Deep Sea Technology and Pioneers
-H.M.S Challenger (1872-1876): one
of the first true marine expeditions,
the Challenger expedition mapped
major sea floor features by using a
weighted wire to measure depth.
-the expedition also discovered more
than 4,700 new species.
Deep Dives
The deepest dive recorded by a skin diver
is 127 meters (417 feet).
The deepest dive recorded by a scuba diver
is 282 meters (925 feet).
Special hardened “Jim Suits” allow divers
to reach 600 meters (2000 feet).
Inventor Salim
Joseph Peress with
His diving suit
“Tritonia” (1937).
This design led to
the development
of deep diving suits
called “Jim Suits”.
William Beebe and Otis Barton (1934):
Descended to a depth of 1000 meters
(3,280 feet) in a steel chamber called a
bathysphere.
-the bathysphere was lowered into the
water on a cable, and was not free floating.
-messages were passed to the surface
using a telephone and a wire.
Auguste Piccard (1948): tested a vessel
capable of much deeper dives.
-he called his vessel a bathyscaphe,
Greek for “Deep Ship”
-the FNRS 2 dove to a depth of 1402 m
(4600 ft), but was damaged by waves at
the surface.
Jacques Piccard (1950): with his father,
he designed and built the bathyscaphe
Trieste.
-Trieste dove to a depth of 3,139 meters
(10,300 ft) in trials.
Jacques Piccard and Lt. Donald Walsh
(1960): dove in Trieste to a record depth
of 10,915 meters (35,810 feet).
-dive took place in the Challenger Deep,
an area in the Mariana Trench, the
deepest point in Earth’s oceans.
Challenger
Deep, site
of the 1960
Trieste dive.
Alvin (1964) : Operated by the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution, Alvin
made its first dive in 1964.
-Alvin has conducted over 3700 dive
missions since it was built, including dives
to H.M.S. Titanic in the late 80’s.
-Alvin is a DSRV, or Deep Submergence
Research Vehicle
Alvins dimensions: 23 feet long, 12 feet
high. The crew rides within a 6 foot
diameter sphere made of titanium.
Alvin is capable of diving to a depth of
4,500 meters (14,764 feet) .
-a typical dive takes over 8 hours to
complete.
The titanium sphere from Alvin removed
for maintenance.
Note the
relative
size of the
men and
the sphere!