1. GOING EVEN DEEPER… …THE ABYSS

2. Where are we looking?
Bathypelagic and Abyssopelagic
NO SUN LIGHT

4. Who lives here? Bristlemouths & Anglerfish Gulpers and swallowers
Fish still small; bigger than mesopelagic
Put all energy toward growth
Not reproduction
Not migrating

5. Benthos
Bottom dwelling organisms
Mostly unknown/ unexplored

7. 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

8. PRESSURE
Adapt with molecular changes (enzymes)

9. 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

10. 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

11. LACK OF FOOD (again) Meiofauna: benthic; smaller than 1 mm
Epifauna: rest on surface
Infauna: burrow
Macrofauna: benthic; larger than 1 mm

12. LACK OF FOOD (again) Primary production: bacteria & detritus
Primary consumers: infauna
polychate worms

13. LACK OF FOOD (again) Primary consumers: epifauna

14. Opportunistic: whale falls
LACK OF FOOD (again)
Opportunistic: whale falls
Smell food
Descend quickly
Feeding frenzy
Gorge themselves & move on
Eat EVERYTHING

15. LACK OF FOOD (again) Deep sea gigantism
Unknown reason (possible delay of reproduction)
courses.washington.edu/.../nina/isopod.html
uglyoverload.blogspot.com/2006/12/deep-sea-gi...

16. BACTERIA!!!!! Adapted to cold, heat, and pressure
Primary production using chemicals instead of sunlight…
CHEMOSYNTHESIS!

17. BACTERIA!!!!! Hydrothermal Vents Black smokers: mid-ocean ridges
Oases of life
Support: tubeworms, clams, crabs, shrimp
oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

18. BACTERIA!!!!! Hydrothermal vents White smokers: away from active rift
Support life: snails, sponges, coral
nurp.noaa.gov

19. BACTERIA!!!!! Cold Seeps Near shore on continental shelves
/2/22/Bacterial_mat.jpg

20. BACTERIA!!!!!
Whale falls
oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/.../whalefall_600.jpg