Nicole Kang
Table of Contents The Blue Earth Zones of the Sea Life in the Sea Challenges Adaptations Bioluminescence Biomimicry Deep Sea Vents Deep Sea Creatures
What can you tell me?
The Blue Earth More then 70% of the Earth is covered by water and
that’s just the surface! The ocean is deep and holds an enormous living space Majority of the sea floor is covered in deep-‐sea mud,
where microscopic animals live in the top 10cm
It represents more than 99% of the living space on
this planet
Life in the Sea? Untold billions of organisms live beneath the ocean. Life survives and lives well– even in a habitat that
some scientists once believe it could not possibly support life.
Axolotl
Discussion Ques<on! © Gary Larson
Which one of the
following would you rather live without? Sunlight Oxygen Food Safety Friends
How Can Life Exist…?
Without sunlight? NASA
How Can Life Exist…? How Can Life Exist…?
At near freezing temperatures? Kari Liimatainen
How Can Life Exist…? With little to no oxygen?
National Geographic
How Can Life Exist…?
At pressures that could flatten a submarine?
How Can Life Exist…? With scarce food supplies?
© Gary Larson
How Can Life Exist…? While avoiding predators?
© Gary Larson
How Can Life Exist…?
MediaBistro.com
While needing to find a mate?
And yet… These waters are full of life Life that is perfectly adapted to these challenges and
have evolved in strange and amazing ways
Life Span Many deep-‐sea animals
grow slowly and live very long lives Deep-‐sea rockfish can live more than 200 years old… Some corals can live to be hundreds, even thousands of years old
Biggest rockfish caught, weighs 27kg!
Let There Be (No) Light… Sunlight is rapidly absorbed
in the sea. At 1 m only 60% is left. Long waves in the color spectrum disappear more rapidly
In deep waters: substances on reef fishes’ bodies capture light at other wavelengths and release the energy as red light
Darkness Survival Strategies No sunlight means no photosynthesis! What does this
mean?! Giant Squid-‐ cope with low levels of light by having enormous eyes the size of dinner plates! Tripod fish-‐ detects their prey by sensing vibrations instead of seeing National Geographic
Buoyancy How do some fish and other sea
creatures not sink to the bottom? Very light bones and flesh Gas bladders that stop them from
sinking
Brown Sharptail Eel
Heavier species sink if they stop
swimming so they spend much of their time resting on the sea floor searching it for food. Pancake Batfish
Pressure The weight of air in the Earth’s
atmosphere is 1kg per square centimeter at sea level In the ocean the pressure is much greater because of the water pressing down heavily At 4km half a ton of weight presses
on every square cm
Many survive because their body is
mostly made of liquid which can’t be compressed.
Sad fish live down here… D=
There is little to eat in the deep
Marine Snow sea Bits of food drift slowly down
from surface waters in what is called “marine snow” This includes dead and dying
organisms, animal waste, sediment, and dust
Most but not all of the marine
snow is consumed by microbes and plankton. The rest ends up on the seafloor which sustains animals living on the bottom
Avoid GeNng Eaten! Hide! The vampire squid which lives in
depths where there is very little oxygen
Be too big to be eaten! A Big Red Jelly is too big… Be invisible! Camouflage-‐ many deep sea
animals are dark red which absorbs light rather than reflects like Red Jelly
What are some other ways?
Midwater Polychaete Slickhead Fish
Lazy Fish Fish don’t ‘drink’ water, but they do breathe oxygen
inside of it. There is a low amount of dissolved oxygen in the deep sea waters. Therefore, to conserve energy, many fish have low metabolic rates, so they are less active and need less energy. arctic.uoguelph.ca
Ma<ng and Reproduc<on
Environmental News Network
Some squid female stores the sperm
but does not develop her eggs until the time is right. Anglerfish males are tiny compared to the females
Glass Squid Pixar
Male latches and fuses onto her female
and stays there for the rest of his life.
Hermaphroditic animals such as comb
jelly are able to reproduce on their own.
NOAA
Bioluminescence Nature’s artificial light uses chemicals within their
bodies to produce light. What other organisms do this? Mainly a marine phenomenon though not found in freshwater.
Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents
Deep Sea Hydrothermal Vents Discovered late 1970’s Nearly 8000 ft (2,438.4
meters) below the surface was what looked like chimneys expelling clouds of black smoke. Proof for the first time that life could be sustained by the Earth itself
Chimneys and Black Smokers Seawater goes into the Earths’ crust through cracks and fissures
in the ocean floor. The water is heated by magma below the surface, expands and rises back to the surface On the way up the hot water dissolves minerals and other chemicals from the rock to make a dark chemical soup Some minerals harden on the rim of the vent which build to a tall chimney-‐like structure. The dark color of the water was then named “black smokers.”
Living off the Earth Organisms get food directly from the vents themselves. This process is known as chemosynthesis. Bacteria in the water feed on what is normally a lethal
soup of chemicals. An entire ecosystem totally separate from the world of light is made.
These waters are so fertile that shrimps have been known to
number in the millions near these vents.
Biomimicry Copying nature and using
it to solve human problems. Olympic athletes now wear swim suits designed from Sharklet Technologies shark skin! The scales speed up surrounding water with ridges. 89% of swimming medals won in the Beijing Olympics were won by shark suit swimmers!
David Gallo Renowned
oceanographer who travels under the sea to explore and map the ocean. He has visited the sunken Titanic! Biomimicry Deep Sea Life
Vampire Squid Vampyrotenthis Infernalis Means ‘vampire squid from Hell’ Found 3000 feet under the sea level Last surviving member of order Vampyromorphida Similar to both squids and octopuses as all three are
descended from the cephalopod mollusk Lacks ink sacs, but can eject a cloud of thick bioluminescent mucus
Firefly Squid (Watasenia scintillans) 7 cm :D Found 365 m in the day but at night
migrate to surface to search for food Equipped with light producing organs, photopores, which emit blue light. Lights can be flashed in unison or alternated thought to serve... as communication with mates or rivals to disguise the squid’s shape confuse predators allowing for escape
Believed to be the only squid with
color vision
Lights in Japan Famous for the light
show that occurs each year off the coast of Japan as millions of these tiny animals gather to spawn. Found to be a delicacy in Japan and widely fished during the spawning season PinkTentacle.com
Giant Isopod (Bathynomus giganteus) Found 77m to 2,140m under sea
largest member of the isopod family (related to shrimps and crabs) Can grow to over 16 inches
Giant Isopod (cont.) Some researches believe large size may
have been an adaptation to help the animal deal with enormous pressures They reproduce by laying eggs which are stored in a pouch
Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta) Why do you think this fish is called “Fangtooth”? Largest teeth for body size
Fangtooth: Quick Facts! Lives in temperate and tropical ocean
regions (commonly 600-‐6500 ft. deep, but have been found as deep as 16,000 ft. = can withstand intense pressure, near-‐freezing temperature!)
Is actually small-‐-‐ maximum 6 inches (16
cm) Eyes set high on its head; poor eyesight
Baby Fangtooth Eggs hatch into tiny plankton-‐
sized larvae Look very different from adults (at first, marine biologists mistook them as a different species!) Feed by filtering plankton from water using specially-‐formed gill rakes that disappear as they reach maturity
Fangtooth The juveniles begin to resemble adults as they reach a
size of about 3 inches, and then they start to descend down to deeper waters We still do not know how long they live!