The Abyssal Plains Chase Hatcher & Arthur Brennan

The Abyssal Plains are a relatively flat area of sea floor. They are found in the deepest parts of most ocean floors where sunlight does not reach. It is complete darkness.

Abyssal Plain Ecosystems The structure and function of Abyssal Ecosystems are strongly influenced by the rate and composition of food (marine snow) on the seafloor. Primary production of the Photic Zone is altered by climate change, fishing, and ocean fertilization, which in return affects the amount of food that reaches the plains.

Sunlight does not reach the Abyssal Plains so the large majority of organisms rely on the Marine Snow that floats down and some even go up to the shallower depths to prey upon the photosynthetic organisms. Bigger organisms prey on the smaller ones.

Food Web! Producers 1 st Consumers 2 nd Consumers

Producers Phytoplankton Diatoms Dinoflagellates Cyanobacteria

Primary Consumers Jellyfish Benthopelagic Fish Nematodes (roundworms) Brittle Star Fish Sea Cucumbers Andeep Taxa Giant Isopod Dumbo Octopus Sea Urchins Bivalve (Shell)

Secondary Consumers Gulper Eel Firefly Squid Hatchet Fish Anglerfish Viperfish Snipe Eel Japanese Spider Crab Monkfish Skirted Octopus

Food Web Diatoms Andeep Taxa Anglerfish Dinoflagellates Firefly Squid Viperfish

Dinoflagellates Taxonomy- Part of the challenge in dinoflagellate taxonomy and nomenclature is that they have been independently classified by the rules of botany and zoology. In the ecosystem, they are primary producers of food in the aquatic food webs.

Firefly Squid Taxonomy – Animalia Mollusca Cepholopoda Teuthida Enoploteuthidae Watasenia Scintillans In the ecosystem – Their tentacles light up with a blue color. And they are a source of food for larger species. Reproduction – Female squid swim to the surface to spawn (lay eggs), and after they often wash up on shore: dead.

Viperfish Taxonomy- Animalia chordata actinopterygii stomiiformes stomiidae chauliodus danae In the ecosystem they serve as a source of food and that they prey upon other organisms. The Viperfish has a hinged skull that allows it to swallow larger prey. Also it has a huge stomach so it can store food. They have bioluminescence that can attract mates. Scientists think that they are external spawners. This is when the female releases her eggs into the water and then the males will fertilize them.

Human Impact-Negative Humans used to dump all of their trash into the deep oceans because they believed that nothing could live down there. Fisherman using “deep bottom trawlers” destroyed a lot of the plains. Trawlers are huge chains that run across the ocean floor. We have polluted it, and it is too deep to clean

Human Impact - Positive Researching the organisms living down there so we can see if they can survive in shallow water because we have polluted their deep water home.

Some organisms can go over a year without food The abyssal plains are the largest biomes on Earth The average depth is about 11,000 ft It is 60% of the Earth’s surface The sediment of the sea floor can be up to 1,700 ft thick