GOING EVEN DEEPER… …THE ABYSS
Where are we looking? Bathypelagic and Abyssopelagic NO SUN LIGHT
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8101vCjM7nY
Who lives here? Bristlemouths & Anglerfish Gulpers and swallowers Fish still small; bigger than mesopelagic Put all energy toward growth Not reproduction Not migrating
Benthos Bottom dwelling organisms Mostly unknown/ unexplored
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU7dD-4sbKM
Challenges & Adaptations Same as mesopelagic Only worse! Similar adaptations Only magnified! PRESSURE LACK OF FOOD TEMPERATURE Temp constant just above 0 degrees so we can remove it Available food and pressure define zones Replace temperature change with mating Replace MATING
PRESSURE Adapt with molecular changes (enzymes)
MATING Worse than food because you can’t have sex with any old fish you find on the bottom Hermaphrodites Bioluminesence (species specific pattern) Female: pheremones Male: enlarged olfactory sensors Male parasitism – find, bite, join, remain
LACK OF FOOD (again) Detritus finally stops floating – more time to find and eat Little suspension feeding – little suspended food Lots of meiofauna – eat bacteria or decaying organic matter (DOM); live between sediment Lots of deposit feeding – bottom grazing on the meiofauna
LACK OF FOOD (again) Meiofauna: benthic; smaller than 1 mm Epifauna: rest on surface Infauna: burrow Macrofauna: benthic; larger than 1 mm
LACK OF FOOD (again) Primary production: bacteria & detritus Primary consumers: infauna polychate worms http://www.mbari.org/benthic/fauna.html
LACK OF FOOD (again) Primary consumers: epifauna http://www.mbari.org/benthic/fauna.html
Opportunistic: whale falls LACK OF FOOD (again) Opportunistic: whale falls Smell food Descend quickly Feeding frenzy Gorge themselves & move on Eat EVERYTHING
LACK OF FOOD (again) Deep sea gigantism Unknown reason (possible delay of reproduction) www.wallawalla.edu/.../Idotea_wosnessenskii.html courses.washington.edu/.../nina/isopod.html uglyoverload.blogspot.com/2006/12/deep-sea-gi...
BACTERIA!!!!! Adapted to cold, heat, and pressure Primary production using chemicals instead of sunlight… CHEMOSYNTHESIS!
BACTERIA!!!!! Hydrothermal Vents Black smokers: mid-ocean ridges Oases of life Support: tubeworms, clams, crabs, shrimp oceanexplorer.noaa.gov
BACTERIA!!!!! Hydrothermal vents White smokers: away from active rift Support life: snails, sponges, coral nurp.noaa.gov
BACTERIA!!!!! Cold Seeps Near shore on continental shelves http://en.wikivisual.com/images /2/22/Bacterial_mat.jpg
BACTERIA!!!!! Whale falls oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/.../whalefall_600.jpg