Biotic Factors

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Marine Ecosystems
Open Ocean
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Open Ocean Habitat

• The Open Ocean, or Pelagic Zone, consists
  everything in the ocean outside of the coastal
  areas. The demersal zone is everything in the
  ocean near the sea floor or the coast.

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Layers of the Pelagic Zone.
The Pelagic Zone is divided into sections
creating A number of sub-zones based on their
different ecological characteristics.
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Layers of the Pelagic Zone. Continued.

• Epipelagic Zone
• Mesopelagic Zone (the twilight zone)
• Bathypelagic Zone
• Abyssopelagic Zone
• Hadopelagic Zone

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Epipelagic Zone

• from the surface (MSL) down to around 200 m
• Has enough light for photosynthesis
• Plants and animals are largely concentrated in
  this zone
• - Here one will typically fish such as tuna and
  numerous number of sharks, as well as dolphins
  and jellyfish.

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Mesopelagic Zone

• From 200 m down to around 1000 m
• Some light penetrates this deep, but it is
  insufficient for photosynthesis.
• Animals such as swordfish, squids, wolfish, and a
  few species of cuttlefish live here.

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Bathypelagic Zone

• From 1000 m down to 4000 m
• Almost entirely dark
• Has no living plants
• Giant squid lives in this depth, and here they
  are hunted by the sperm whales.

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Lantern Fish and Sperm Whale
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Abyssopelagic Zone

• From 4000 m down to above the ocean floor
• No light whatsoever penetrates this depth
• Most creatures are blind and colorless

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Hadopelagic Zone

• The deep water in the trenches
• Mostly unknown, very few species are known to
  live there.

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Biotic Factors

• Algae, Plankton, and Plants

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Phytoplankton

• Phytoplankton are abundant in the open ocean and
  are a major food source for many of the species
  that live in the pelagic zone, which includes
  whales and dolphins. They are most common in the
  Epipelagic zone, as the Mesopelagic zone and
  below cannot provide sufficient amounts of light
  required for photosynthesis. Some of the plankton
  found in the ocean are dinoflagellates and
  diatoms.

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Zooplankton

• Cnidarians are the main zooplankton that live in
  the open ocean, including the gelatinous sea
  butterfly and the comb jelly. These drifters feed
  off of other cnidarians and other zooplankton,
  but are uncommon in the open ocean due to a lack
  of nutrients and phytoplankton.
• Pelagic crabs are also a common sight in the open
  ocean, traveling in large masses and serving as a
  another food source for whales.

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Plants

• Plant life, aside from phytoplankton, is very
  scarce. One of the only types of plant life
  located in the open ocean is the surface seaweed,
  which drifts through the ocean and provides a
  habitat for zooplankton and small marine species.

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Bitotic Factors

• Invertebrates

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• Invertebrates that dwell in the open ocean
  include members of the phylum cnidaria and phylum
  chordata. The Portuguese Man o War and Salps are
  both examples of invertebrates that reside in the
  open ocean. Salps pump water through their body
  as they swim and, straining out the water and
  feeding on the phytoplankton that is left behind.
  The Portuguese Man O War, despite looking like a
  single jellyfish, is actually a colony of polyps
  and medusae. Other invertebrates of the open
  ocean include squid, tuna, billfish, and other
  fish.

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Biotic Factors
Vertebrates
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• Only 10 percent of all marine species live in the
  open ocean.
• Whales and dolphins drift in and out of the
  pelagic zone whilst feeding on krill, crabs and
  other plankton.
• Another common vertebrate found in the open ocean
  is the sea turtle, one of which is the
  Loggerhead.

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Community InteractionCompetition

• The open ocean covers a vast amount of the earth.
  Within it there is much competition between
  organisms. Competition is the simultaneous demand
  by two or more organisms for limited
  environmental resources, such as nutrients,
  living space, or light. Sharks for instance prey
  on a variety of different organisms from
  plankton, to small fish, to large animals.
  Sharks are at the highest intensity to the
  competition and viewed as the biggest threat.
  Competition between whales also occurs in this
  habitat due to there size and depending on the
  type, how they travel. Competition occurs
  between animals for territory as well.

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Community InteractionSymbiosis

• Symbiosis is an association between two or more
  organisms that may, but dont necessarily have
  to, benefit each other. There are four forms of
  symbiosis amensalism is when one species is
  harmed or inhibited and the other species is
  unaffected, commensalisms is when two organisms
  of different species in which one derives some
  benefit while the other is unaffected , mutualism
  is when two different species in which each
  member benefits, and parasitism is when one
  organism (the parasite) benefits and the other
  (the host) is generally harmed. The hermit crab
  lives in a discarded shell, and has a sea anemone
  on the outside of the shell. Both organisms
  benefit from each other in that the crab is
  protected and the anemone has a food supply. Fish
  called wrasses living in the Indian and Pacific
  oceans act as cleaners for bigger fish. They eat
  parasites, such as fish-lice, on the bodies of
  the larger fish, thus keeping it clean. Whale
  barnacles also are a sign of symbiosis.

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Food Web

• The open ocean food web is very diverse.
• Plankton serve as one of the largest food sources
  in the ocean.

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Ocean Food Web
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Keystone Species
Plankton is the keystone species but there are
two different kinds. One is phytoplankton, a
plant-like plankton. Zooplankton is the
animal-like type. If you take out either one the
open ocean ecosystem would collapse as they are
both major food sources for smaller fish squids
and other ocean creatures which are preyed upon
by animals higher up on the trophic scale.
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Open Ocean Threats

• Human use of water
• Waste from cruise ships and military vessels

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Importance of the Open Ocean
We get a number of things from the open ocean,
oxygen being just one. The many creatures of the
open ocean are a major food source for humans and
provide us with many essential nutrients and
items. The ocean aids transportation- without it,
we would not be able to sail the sea for
traveling purposes or for transporting goods.