-Even though the planet is largely made up of rock, 71 percent of its surface is covered with ocean.
-Yet that watery veneer comprises more than 90 percent of the biosphere by volume: it covers 360 million square kilometers (140 million square miles) and runs, on average, a few kilometers deep.
-Those closest to shore are best known: the intertidal zones the coral reefs and kelp forests, which occur at the same depth but are mutually exclusive.
-Rivers and coastal vegetation supply nutrients to the ocean, just as the upwelling of deep, cold waters provides nutrients to many coastal areas.
-Researchers have studied less than 10 percent of the ocean
-explored no more than 1 percent of the deep ocean floor.
-Their scientific description requires more broad categories—that is, more phyla (the second most general taxonomic grouping)—than are needed to categorize their terrestrial cousins.
-33 animal phyla, 30 describe residents of the ocean, 15 exclusively so. Only 16 phyla include animals found on land or in freshwater—and of those, only one is exclusively terrestrial.
-One and a half million terrestrial species have been described—mostly insects and vascular plants—but total estimates range from five million to more than 50 million.
-Of the organisms that live in the ocean, however, only 250,000 species have been identified; total estimates run closer to 400,000 to 450,000.
-Seawater is about 800 times as dense as air and is much more viscous.
-So the view 10 meters below the surface is mostly blue. A few hundred meters deeper there is no sunlight at all and hence no photosynthesis.
-Much smaller species—called prochlorophytes—are found in tropical and mid-ocean waters.
-Bottom-dwelling large algae, such as kelp, and seed plants, such as surf grasses, are confined to such a restricted shallow zone around the continents and islands that they contribute little to the overall biological productivity of the ocean,
-Phosphorus and nitrogen, for example, are present at only 1/10,000 of their concentration in fertile soil.
-One cubic meter of soil may yield 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of dry organic matter a year, but the richest cubic meter of seawater will yield a mere five grams of organic matter in that same interval
-Below the well-mixed surface layer is a narrow zone—called the thermocline—that separates the warm surface from the colder, and thus heavier, water beneath.
-As a result, the waters of the tropics remain bereft of nutrients and of the phytoplankton that depend on them. Lacking these clouds of microscopic life, tropical seas normally stay crystal-clear
-On land, air provides plants and animals with a fairly constant mixture of this life-giving gas: 210 milliliters per liter.
-certain areas of the Pacific Ocean an “oxygen minimum zone” occurs between 500 and 1,000 meters below the surface
-Every 10 meters of seawater adds roughly another atmosphere of pressure: at one-kilometer depth the pressure is 100 atmospheres (100 times what people normally experience)
-In the profoundest ocean trenches, the pressure reaches more than 1,100 atmospheres.
-Food for these organisms arrives in the unending shower of organic particles called marine snow
-Many mid-water fishes, for instance, are no more than 20 centimeters long
-Giant squid may reach 20 meters the longest animal in the world appears to be a siphonophore of the genus Praya, which grows to 40 meters in length and is only as thick as a human thumb
-Bioluminescence can be found in 90 percent of the mid-water species of fish these creatures are the living oil tankers of the sea: using their blubber as fuel, they undergo vast fluctuations in weight, sometimes losing 30 percent of their body mass during migration.
Despite their obvious value, marine ecosystems have been forgotten when discussing, about saving biodiversity. One reason is that they are out of sight and ignored by many scientists and people. People need to wake up, at least 70 percent of the world’s fisheries are operating at or beyond sustainable levels, and the demand will only increase overtime. The ocean is not fully understood and has not been fully explored. There are many differences between life up on land and life in the ocean. The ocean is to vast to explore, the movement of the whale is not enough to find the answer to our questions. Ocean systems exhibit great diversity; the organisms within this system are very complex and have different functions. We don’t know how deep water fish have the ability to survive in such conditions and their effect on the ocean’s cycle.
You can walk on every inch of Earths land and that would compare nothing to traveling in the ocean. I never thought about it, the earth is truly misnamed. The world is mostly water and less than 20% of the ocean has been explored, what else did we get wrong? At first people believed in the deep dark depths of the ocean lay big devilish sea monsters, caste to the bottom of the sea by God of the sea Poseidon. This is not at all, what truly lurks in the dark depths most fish in deep blue sea are small. The deep area of the ocean may lack sunlight, but it contains massive amounts of dissolved oxygen which is hardly used, since organisms this deep hardly move around for food. I have seen snow before, but never underwater. Organisms deep below receive food and energy from falling matter, like dead phytoplankton, other small plants, dead sea creatures, and nutrients. I also did not know the further deep, the more nutrients, this results from the no plants to use the nutrients to go through photosynthesis.
-Yet that watery veneer comprises more than 90 percent of the biosphere by volume: it covers 360 million square kilometers (140 million square miles) and runs, on average, a few kilometers deep.
-Those closest to shore are best known: the intertidal zones the coral reefs and kelp forests, which occur at the same depth but are mutually exclusive.
-Rivers and coastal vegetation supply nutrients to the ocean, just as the upwelling of deep, cold waters provides nutrients to many coastal areas.
-Researchers have studied less than 10 percent of the ocean
-explored no more than 1 percent of the deep ocean floor.
-Their scientific description requires more broad categories—that is, more phyla (the second most general taxonomic grouping)—than are needed to categorize their terrestrial cousins.
-33 animal phyla, 30 describe residents of the ocean, 15 exclusively so. Only 16 phyla include animals found on land or in freshwater—and of those, only one is exclusively terrestrial.
-One and a half million terrestrial species have been described—mostly insects and vascular plants—but total estimates range from five million to more than 50 million.
-Of the organisms that live in the ocean, however, only 250,000 species have been identified; total estimates run closer to 400,000 to 450,000.
-Seawater is about 800 times as dense as air and is much more viscous.
-So the view 10 meters below the surface is mostly blue. A few hundred meters deeper there is no sunlight at all and hence no photosynthesis.
-Much smaller species—called prochlorophytes—are found in tropical and mid-ocean waters.
-Bottom-dwelling large algae, such as kelp, and seed plants, such as surf grasses, are confined to such a restricted shallow zone around the continents and islands that they contribute little to the overall biological productivity of the ocean,
-Phosphorus and nitrogen, for example, are present at only 1/10,000 of their concentration in fertile soil.
-One cubic meter of soil may yield 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of dry organic matter a year, but the richest cubic meter of seawater will yield a mere five grams of organic matter in that same interval
-Below the well-mixed surface layer is a narrow zone—called the thermocline—that separates the warm surface from the colder, and thus heavier, water beneath.
-As a result, the waters of the tropics remain bereft of nutrients and of the phytoplankton that depend on them. Lacking these clouds of microscopic life, tropical seas normally stay crystal-clear
-On land, air provides plants and animals with a fairly constant mixture of this life-giving gas: 210 milliliters per liter.
-certain areas of the Pacific Ocean an “oxygen minimum zone” occurs between 500 and 1,000 meters below the surface
-Every 10 meters of seawater adds roughly another atmosphere of pressure: at one-kilometer depth the pressure is 100 atmospheres (100 times what people normally experience)
-In the profoundest ocean trenches, the pressure reaches more than 1,100 atmospheres.
-Food for these organisms arrives in the unending shower of organic particles called marine snow
-Many mid-water fishes, for instance, are no more than 20 centimeters long
-Giant squid may reach 20 meters the longest animal in the world appears to be a siphonophore of the genus Praya, which grows to 40 meters in length and is only as thick as a human thumb
-Bioluminescence can be found in 90 percent of the mid-water species of fish these creatures are the living oil tankers of the sea: using their blubber as fuel, they undergo vast fluctuations in weight, sometimes losing 30 percent of their body mass during migration.
Despite their obvious value, marine ecosystems have been forgotten when discussing, about saving biodiversity. One reason is that they are out of sight and ignored by many scientists and people. People need to wake up, at least 70 percent of the world’s fisheries are operating at or beyond sustainable levels, and the demand will only increase overtime. The ocean is not fully understood and has not been fully explored. There are many differences between life up on land and life in the ocean. The ocean is to vast to explore, the movement of the whale is not enough to find the answer to our questions. Ocean systems exhibit great diversity; the organisms within this system are very complex and have different functions. We don’t know how deep water fish have the ability to survive in such conditions and their effect on the ocean’s cycle.
You can walk on every inch of Earths land and that would compare nothing to traveling in the ocean. I never thought about it, the earth is truly misnamed. The world is mostly water and less than 20% of the ocean has been explored, what else did we get wrong? At first people believed in the deep dark depths of the ocean lay big devilish sea monsters, caste to the bottom of the sea by God of the sea Poseidon. This is not at all, what truly lurks in the dark depths most fish in deep blue sea are small. The deep area of the ocean may lack sunlight, but it contains massive amounts of dissolved oxygen which is hardly used, since organisms this deep hardly move around for food. I have seen snow before, but never underwater. Organisms deep below receive food and energy from falling matter, like dead phytoplankton, other small plants, dead sea creatures, and nutrients. I also did not know the further deep, the more nutrients, this results from the no plants to use the nutrients to go through photosynthesis.