MARE 444

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Deep Blue Sea
MARE 444 Dr. Jason Turner
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Deep Blue Sea
Just what the hell did you do to those
sharks?... Well I'll be damned. Russell
Franklin
MARE 444 Dr. Jason Turner
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A Typical Abyssal-Plain
Pressure 300 atm Temperature 1-2ºC Salinity 34.
5-35 Dissolved 02 5 ppm Light Bioluminescent
Only Current Speed Slow, Type Fine Oozes or Clay Deposition Rate mm/yr Organic Content 0.05
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Sediments Defining Habitats
Shelf and Deep-sea habitats are mainly sand and
mud
Current patterns and Organisms Modify Bottom
Habitats
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Deep Sea Sediments
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Itchy and Patchy
Which one's the mouse?...Itchy?... Itchy's a
jerk! Homer Simpson
Creates Patchy Environments Modification of
Sediment by Burrowers Currents Disturb
Sediments Organic Material Distributed
Discontinuously Dispersal and Recruitment of
Larvae
What is Patchy? When individuals are found more
frequently together than randomly predicted
What Else Is Patchy?
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Distribution of Plankton Communities
Plankton are extremely patchymore
frequently together than expected by chance
Net tow 1 2 3 4
Why? 1) Spatial changes in physical conditions
(T, S, Light) 2) Current transport water
turbulence (Langmuir converg) 3) Grazing activity
(or lack of) 4) Localized reproduction 5) Social
aggregating behavior (Deep scattering layer)
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Factors Limiting Ocean Nutrients
1. Nutrient content not constant 2. Production
reduced at depth 3. Organisms reduce water
volume 4. Nutrients absorbed by other autotrophs
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Marine Snow
This snowflake tastes like fish sticks Ralph
Wiggum

• Marine snow particles are aggregates of smaller
  particles, including phytoplankton cells,
  zooplankton fecal material and other detrital
  material

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Marine Snow and the Twilight Zone

• Only 10 of the particulate material that sinks
  below 100 m reaches a depth of 1000 m
• This region in the ocean termed the twilight zone
  there is sufficient light for some organisms to
  use in prey detection, but not enough for
  photosynthesis
• Decrease in particulate material in this region
  indicates that organisms are utilizing this
  material

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Marine Snow and the Twilight Zone
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Deep Sea Food Webs
Deep Sea is removed from the photosynthetic
zone No primary production except where
Chemosynthetic bacteria are found All organisms
living outside hydrothermal vents and cold seeps
depend upon food produced elsewhere - coupling
of food webs
You are now deeper than
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Succession, Youre My Succession
Succession - The gradual and orderly process of
ecosystem development brought about by changes in
community composition and the production of a
climax characteristic of a particular geographic
region
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Hydrothermal Vent Communities
Water rising directly to the surface from hot
subsurface rock can reach 400ºC Black
Smoker few macrofauna in smoker
Adjacent water 8-30ºC comprise large amount of
deep sea communities (ambient 1-2ºC) Contain
sulfur-reducing bacteria
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(No Transcript)
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Hydrothermal Vents
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Hydrothermal Vent Communities
Polychaetes, Molluscs, Arthropods,
Vestimentiferans
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Hydrothermal Vent Communities
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Cold Seep Communities
Vents cooler fluids 40-75ºC Often shallower (few
thousand instead of several) Different species
composition mollusks, pogonophoran worms, sponges
Depend upon on both sulfur-reducing and
methanotrophic bacteria
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Cold Seep Communities
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Outside Food Sources of the Deep Sea
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Outside Food Sources of the Deep Sea
Terrestrial/Coastal Vegetation chitin, wood,
cellulose Fecal Pellets Fecal Pellets POM/DOM
organic matter Molts chitin Vertically
migrating fishes/inverts Marine Snow gelatenous
plankton matter Large Fish/Mammals ???
Are Cetaceans Important?
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Cetacean Doggy-Bags?
Large Amount of Biomass High nutrient content
lipid in blubber, bone
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Cetacean Utilization
Newly discovered bone-eating worms, Osedax
rubiplumus O. frankpressi pink structures are
thought to be gills
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Are You Ready For A New Succession, New Succession
To evaluate faunal succession and persistence
times Conduct time-series studies of implanted
whale carcasses Indicate that whale-fall
communities pass through three successional
stages Mobile scavenger stage (4 m to 1.5
yrs) Necrophages (hagfish, lysianassid
amphipods, macrourid fish, sleeper sharks) remove
most soft tissue Enrichment opportunist stage
surrounding sediments are heavily colonized by
newly discovered polychaetes, gastropods and
bivalves Sulfophilic stage containing 200
macrofaunal species, suggest that the sulfophilic
stage on large skeletons lasts DECADES
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Mobile Scavenger Stage
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Are You Ready For A New Succession, New Succession
To evaluate faunal succession and persistence
times Conduct time-series studies of implanted
whale carcasses Indicate that whale-fall
communities pass through three successional
stages Mobile scavenger stage (4 m to 1.5
yrs) Necrophages (hagfish, lysianassid
amphipods, macrourid fish, sleeper sharks) remove
most soft tissue Enrichment opportunist stage
surrounding sediments are heavily colonized by
newly discovered polychaetes, gastropods and
bivalves Sulfophilic stage containing 200
macrofaunal species, suggest that the sulfophilic
stage on large skeletons lasts DECADES
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Enrichment Opportunist Stage
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Are You Ready For A New Succession, New Succession
To evaluate faunal succession and persistence
times Conduct time-series studies of implanted
whale carcasses Indicate that whale-fall
communities pass through three successional
stages Mobile scavenger stage (4 m to 1.5
yrs) Necrophages (hagfish, lysianassid
amphipods, macrourid fish, sleeper sharks) remove
most soft tissue Enrichment opportunist stage
surrounding sediments are heavily colonized by
newly discovered polychaetes, gastropods and
bivalves Sulfophilic stage containing 200
macrofaunal species, suggest that the sulfophilic
stage on large skeletons lasts DECADES
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Sulfophilic Stage
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Benthic Sampling 101
Bottom Dredge
Grab Sampler
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Benthic Sampling 201
Covers larger surface area Samples can be
damaged No spatial arrangement
Small area Small/delicate samples Horizontal/Verti
cal structure
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Benthic Sampling 601