Transcript Marine Life Zones Why the Ocean? Regions that contain

Why the Ocean?
• Regions that contain characteristic
organisms that interact with one another
and with their environment
• They can be divided into two categories:
– Horizontal Zones
– Vertical Zones
• On the beach where the water doesn’t reach,
extending to the sand dunes
• Also called the splash zone
• Where you put your blanket down!
• Salty sea spray from crashing waves limits plant
growth, but some grasses, trees, and shrubs can
grow in the upper supratidal zone
• Long line of seaweed
and debris that
marks the point of
high tide
• It forms the
boundary between
the supratidal zone
and the intertidal
zone
• The area located between the strandline (high tide)
and low tide
• Also called the littoral zone
• Since tides go in and out each day, the organisms
who live in this zone are well adapted to alternating
periods between wet and dry: they are able to bury
themselves in the sand or attach themselves to
rocks
• Organisms that live in this zone include snails,
clams, crabs, and worms
Inside a Tide Pool
Squid Trapped in a Tidal Pool
• The area of the coast that is completely
submerged in water
• An area of heavy wave impact
• Organisms here have adaptations to cling to
hard substrates to avoid being swept away
• Sponges, sea stars, sand dollars, mussels, clams,
barnacles, and flat fish like flounder
• Largest life zone in the
ocean, all areas of the
ocean above the
bottom
• Vast region where large
schools of fish and
marine mammals swim
freely
• Can be divided into the
neritic zone and the
oceanic zone
• The part of the pelagic zone that is above the
continental shelf (fewer than 200 meters deep)
• Most commercial fishing takes place here
• The water is very nutrient rich due to runoff
from the land
• The shallow depths of this zone allow sunlight
to reach the bottom, which enables
photosynthetic plants to survive
• The presence of plants increases the amount of
oxygen in the water!
• The part of the pelagic zone that extends
beyond the continental shelf break
• Includes most of the open ocean
• The upper part receives light and the lower part
does not
• Photic Zone = where light
reaches
• It’s the area most suitable for
supporting life
• Most light can penetrate to an
average depth of 100 meters
and to a maximum depth of
200 meters
• Aphotic Zone = all areas
below a depth of 200 meters
where light cannot penetrate
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EMBAH
Epipelagic
Mesopelagic
Bathypelagic
Abyssopelagic
Hadalpelagic
Zone
Name
Nickname
Depth
Epipelagic
Photic Zone
0-200 meters
Mesopelagic
Bathypelagic
Abyssopelagic
Hadalpelagic
Twilight Zone
Midnight Zone
The Abyss
The Trenches
201-1000 meters
1001-4000 meters
4001-6000 meters
Characteristics
Photosynthesis
Some light, but no
photosynthesis, first
bioluminescent organisms
Water pressure 5800 PSI
(sea level is 14.7!), animals
have significant fat stores for
buoyancy
Known low nutrients,
organisms red or translucent
Hydrothermal Vents where
6001 meters -Sea Floor tectonic plates diverge,
undersea canyons, sea stars
and giant tube worms live at
vents
• Includes the entire ocean floor, from the
intertidal zone to the deep ocean basin
• Organisms who inhabit this zone are adapted to
regions of high pressure and low temperature
• Organisms who live here are called benthos
• The deepest part of
the ocean floor
• Fish and
invertebrates who
live here rarely swim
near the surface
• World's WeirdestDeep Sea Anglerfish
• True Facts About
the Anglerfish
Bioluminescence
• The production and emission of light by a living
organism, caused by a chemical reaction
• Bioluminescence Caught on Camera
• BBC Earth- Bioluminescence