What Kind of Animals Live in the Bathypelagic Zone

Oceanographical terminology

The layers of the pelagic zone

The bathyal zone or bathypelagic – from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep – (also known as midnight zone) is the part of the open body of water that extends from a depth of 1,000 to 4,000 m (3,300 to 13,100 ft) beneath the ocean surface.^[ane] ^[2] It lies between the mesopelagic above, and the abyssopelagic below. The average temperature hovers at about 4 °C (39 °F). Although larger by volume than the photic zone, the bathyal zone is less densely populated. Sunlight does not accomplish this zone, meaning main production, if any, is nearly nonexistent. There are no known phytoplankton or aquatic plants in this zone because of the lack of sunlight necessary for photosynthesis. It is known as the midnight (besides twilight or dark) zone because of this feature.^[1]

Distribution of bathypelagic sea waters

Ecology [ edit ]

The bathypelagic body of water waters are an open-body of water ecosystem characterized past the lack of sunlight and primary producers, and trophic networks relying on the subsidies of nutrients from epipelagic and mesopelagic waters. Thermohaline apportionment provides other resource such as oxygen.^[three]

Fauna [ edit ]

Because of the lack of lite, some species that live in the bathyal zone practise not have eyes. Those possessing eyes in this zone include the viperfish and the frill shark. Many forms of nekton alive in the bathyal zone, such as squid, large whales, and octopuses. In the bathyal, some of the world's largest whales feed. Sponges, brachiopods, sea stars, and echinoids are also common in the bathyal zone. Animals in the bathyal zone are non threatened by predators that tin see them, so they do not accept powerful muscles. This zone is difficult for fish to alive in since information technology is peculiarly hard to find nutrients. They have go very energy efficient, and many have slow metabolic rates to conserve energy. The fish are characterized by weak muscles, soft skin, and slimy bodies. The adaptations of some of the fish that live in that location include small eyes and transparent skin.

Except where the ocean is exceptionally deep, the bathyal zone extends to the benthic zone on the ocean bed of that part of the continental gradient that lies between 1000 and 4000 meters deep.^{[ citation needed ]} The bathyal zone contains sharks, squid, octopuses, and many species of fish. This includes deep-water anglerfish, gulper eel, amphipods and dragonfish.

Hydrothermal exploration [ edit ]

The bathyal zone is of interest to those studying biogeochemistry or deep sea mining. Equally of 2013, the majority of visually-confirmed hydrothermal vents are located at depths of 1,000 metres (iii,300 ft) to 4,000 metres (xiii,000 ft).^[4] Hot venting fluids are buoyant and tin ascent a considerable distance in the water column, supplying hydrogen, marsh gas, sulfur, and iron to organisms in the bathypelagic.

References [ edit ]

^ ^a ^b "Bathypelagic zone". Layers of the body of water. National Weather Service. Archived from the original on 7 February 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2017. {{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ Morelle, Rebecca (seven October 2008). "Deepest e'er' living fish filmed". BBC News . Retrieved 5 June 2017.
^ Linardich, C; Sutton, TT; Priede, IG; Keith, DA (2022). "M2.iii Bathypelagic ocean waters". In Keith, D.A.; Ferrer-Paris, J.R.; Nicholson, E.; Kingsford, R.T. (eds.). The IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0: Descriptive profiles for biomes and ecosystem functional groups. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. doi:10.2305/IUCN.CH.2022.13.en. ISBN 978-2-8317-2077-vii .
^ Beaulieu, Stace E.; Baker, Edward T.; High german, Christopher R.; Maffei, Andrew (November 2013). "An authoritative global database for active submarine hydrothermal vent fields". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 14 (eleven): 4892–4905. Bibcode:2013GGG....14.4892B. doi:10.1002/2013GC004998. hdl: 1912/6496 .

Enig, C. C. (1997). Bathyal zones on the Mediterranean continental gradient: An attempt. Enquiry on marine benthos: ninth Iberian Symposium on Studies of Marine Benthos. Madrid: MAPA, SGT. pp. 23–33. ISBN 8449102995 .

External links [ edit ]

Bathyal zone (oceanography) Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 21 March 2009.