Inner Space

Dark, cold, inhabited by bizarre fearsome looking

creatures
Humans can only venture into this mysterious realm
only with the aid of elaborate, specially designed craft
element of risk as well
 Least known of all our planets environments
Ocean depths include a number of distinct habitats
 lies below the epipelagic
middle pelagic
Still has some dim light not enough for
photosynthesis

ZONA SUMRAKA
 Below the mesopelagic
No sunlight at all

ZONA VJENE TAME

 Each has a distinct community of organisms
All of them lack primary production of food by
photosynthesis
Depend on organic matter produced in the surface
layers of the ocean for food

SVE IVOTNE ZAJEDNICE OVISE O ORGANSKOJ HRANI

KOJA DOLAZI IZ PLIIH SLOJEVA (uz neke iznimke)
 Life is much less abundant below the photic zone
Most food particles get eaten before they sink into
deeper water
Deep-water organisms depend on the surface for food
and oxygen
 There is a gradual thermohaline circulation to even the
deepest parts of the sea, bringing life-giving oxygen
To sink all of this way the oxygen-rich surface water
must become very dense (cold and salty)

TERMOHALINA CIRKULACIJA - temperatura i salinitet

odreuju gustou vodenih masa i uvjetuju cirkulaciju
 Surface overturn reaches the bottom in the Atlantic
south of Greenland and just north of Antarctica
After the water sinks, it spreads through the Atlantic
and into the other ocean basins
The water eventually rises to the surface and flows
back to the Atlantic
Thought to play a role in regulating earths climate
 The mesopelagic is a world of twilight
Dim light during the day is enough to see by
As the depth increases the sea gets darker
1000m there is no light at all
The absence of light marks the end of the mesopelagic
zone
 Temperature at a given depth in the mesopelagic varies
much less than in the epipelagic
Main thermocline is in the mesopelgaic
Organism that move up and down in the water column
encounter larger changes in temperature
 Mesopelagic supports a rich and varied community of
animals, which are often called midwater animals
 Major group of animals in the mesopelagic
zooplankton are much the same as those in the
epipelagic
Krill and copepods dominate
Krill and most mesopelagic shrimps have a common
adaptation of midwater animals photophores or light
organs specialized structures that produce light
 The light produced is known
as bioluminescence
Ostracods can be very
abundant group of
crustaceans
Arrow worms or
chaetognaths important
midwater predators
 Jellyfish, siphonophores, comb jellies, larvaceans and
pteropods are also common
Squids have photophores which are typically arranged
in different patterns for each species
Vampyrotheutis infernalis ~ 30 cm
 Most are quite small (2 to 10 cm)
Bristlemouths and lanternfishes are the most abundant
Most abundant fish on earth (Cyclothone signata)
 Viperfish
Dragon-fishes
Barracudinas
Sabertooth fishes
Lancetfishes
Snake mackerels
Cutlass fishes
 They are well adapted to their unique environment
 Most of the food produced in the epipelagic is used
there
About 20% of the surface primary production sinks to
the mesopelagic
Mesopelagic is chronically short on food
Abundance of midwater organisms reflects the
productivity of the waters above
 Many of the characteristics of midwater animals are
related to the lack of food
Large mouth
Hinged, extendable jaws
Fearsome teeth
Very broad diets and eat just about anything
Large jaws allow them to eat just about anything
a) Chauliodus i b) Malacosteus
 One group stays in the mesopelagic (non-migrators)
One group migrates to the surface each night
(migrators)
 A few species of small zooplankton, mainly copepods
and krill
These organisms filter out detritus and small amounts
of zooplankton that sink
Fecal pellets are an important part of the detritus
eaten by mesopelagic filter feeders
 Most non-migrating midwater animals are fishes,
shrimps and squids
Sit and wait predators
Have a number of adaptations that reduce their energy
requirements
Flabby, watery flesh
No swim bladder too much energy required to fill
and deflate it
 Have soft weak bones
Have lost the defensive structures like spines and
scales reduce weight and make them more neutrally
buoyant
Are not streamlined do not swim much
 Do not have to sit and wait for food to come to them
Swim up at night to feed in the rich surface layers and
during the day they descend several hundred meters or
more
Spend the day in a lethargic stupor

DSL - 2. svj.rat, koritenje sonara - 300-500 m danju i

skroz blizu povrine nou - plivai mjehuri riba koje
migriraju
 Well developed muscles and bones
Retain the swim bladder for buoyancy
Swim bladder can be filled with fat which does not
expand when the pressure changes
Can tolerate temperature changes
 Transports food into the deep water
Vertical migrators carry products of surface production
down with them
Greatly increases the food in the mesopelagic
Many non-migrating species feed heavily on the
migrators
Have more muscle so they are a more nutritious meal
 Have eyes that are large and unusually sensitive fish,
squid, shrimps
Tubular eyes some mid-water fishes have complex
visual system that is almost like having two pairs of
eyes very acute vision in the direction the eyes point
 Mesopelagic predators rely heavily on vision
Camouflage is perhaps even more important than in
the epipelagic basic strategies remain the same
Countershading, transparency, reduction of the
silhouette
a) i b) bez fotofora, c) i d) sa fotoforama
b) i d) mutni jer se vide kao kroz vodu
 Common in the shallower and better-lit parts of the
mesopelagic
Copepods, jellyfish, shrimps, bristlemouth fish
Deeper tend to be more silvery
Deepest darkest part black or red no red light
appear black
 Black backs and silvery sides
To reduce the silhouette they have laterally
compressed bodies which reduces the size of the body
outline
 Allows organisms to mask their silhouette
Bioluminescent photophores produce light that breaks
up the silhouette and helps the animal blend in
Counter illumination the emission of light by
midwater animals to match the background light
 Many mesopelagic animals can control the brightness
of the light they produce and match it to the
brightness of the light coming down from above
 Photophores
Animals own
specialized tissue
Symbiotic bacteria
that live inside the
light organ
 Counter illumination
The pattern of photophores is different among species
and even between sexes communicate and attract
mates
Bioluminescent secretions may serve as a defense
mechanism
Light to lure prey
Light around eyes to help them see
 Midwater organisms have to deal with a shortage of
oxygen in the water
Oxygen enters the water in two ways: gas exchange
with the atmosphere and as a by product of
photosynthesis
Once a water mass leaves the surface and descends
into mesopelagic depths there is no way for it to gain
oxygen
 Water becomes depleted in oxygen often in fairly
defined layers around 500 m
Known as the oxygen minimum layer
Oxygen concentration can drop to practically nothing
 The water below the oxygen minimum layer retains
most of the oxygen it had when it left the surface since
there is little decomposition and respiration
 Large, well developed gills
Relatively inactive
Complex biochemical adaptations like hemoglobin that
functions well at low oxygen concentrations
 Lies below the mesopelagic
Sunlight never penetrates here
Largest habitat on earth and contains about 75% of the
planets liquid water
 Bathypelagic zone (1,000-4,000 m)

Abyssopelagic zone (4,000-6,000 m)

Hadopelagic or Hadal pelagic zone waters of the

trenches (6,000 m and below)
 Each of the depth zones supports a distinct community
of animals
They have many things in common
 The environment is very stable
Always dark
Always cold (1 to 2 C)
Salinity and other chemical properties are uniform
No countershading
Most zooplankton are drab gray or off-white, fish are
black, shrimps are bright red
 Bioluminescence is very common not used for
counterillumination and these organisms have fewer
photophores
Used for attracting prey, communication and courtship
Becomes less common the deeper you go
Functional small eyes in the upper deep sea
 Fishes of the deep parts of the deep sea are blind or
have very small eyes
 Organisms face a continual shortage of food
Only about 5% of the food from above makes it down
to the waters of the deep sea
The animals do not make vertical migrations
Deep sea animals are few and far between
 Most common, bristlemouths are small 50 cm but they
are larger than mesopelagic fishes
It is believed that deep sea fishes put their energy into
growth and therefore reproduce slowly and late in life
Adaptations to food shortages are similar to the
mesopelagic but they are accentuated
 Fish are sluggish and sedentary
Flabby, watery muscles, weak skeletons, no scales and
poorly developed respiratory, nervous and circulatory
systems
No swim bladders
Have huge mouths and can consume prey much larger
than they are
 Many have stomachs that can expand to accommodate
large prey
Swallowers (Saccopharynx)
Gulpers (Euryphyarynx)
Anglerfishes dorsal fin is a modified pole with a
fleshy bit of tissue on the end
 Finding a mate can be difficult
Most are hermaphrodites so that any two fish of a
species can breed
Bioluminescence, pheromones (special chemicals that
a male can detect and follow), male parasitism (male
bites on to the female and stays)
 Shares many characteristics of the pelagic waters
above it
Absence of light
Constant low temperature
Great hydrostatic pressure
Communities are different than the pelagic waters
because there is a bottom
 Scientist know more about the deep sea benthos than
the deep sea pelagic organisms
However only 500 m2 of the 270 million km2 of deep
sea floor have been studied
 Food shortage is critical however, once the food lands
on the bottom it remains until it is found and eaten
unlike the pelagic waters above
Rain of organic matter from above is more like a drizzle
 Meiofauna, tiny organisms that live among the
sediment particles are the most numerous organisms
of the deep sea
Suspension feeders are rare
Deposit feeders are common many are infauna
burrowing through the sediment, some are epifauna
resting on the sediment
Polychaete worms are the most abundant macrofauna
 Crustaceans
Bivalve mollusks
Sea cucumbers
 Fairly rare
Sea stars, brittle stars, crabs
Fishes, squids
Sea spiders (pycnogonids)
Inverts of the deep sea are often much larger than
their shallow water counterparts deep sea gigantism
 Tripod fishes
If a large piece of food makes it to the bottom
amiphods are usually the first to find it
Fish that come quick are: grenadiers or rattails,
brotulas, cusk eels, deep sea spiny eels, hagfishes
tend to be larger, more active and more muscular than
bathypelagic fishes
 Life proceeds at a very different pace
Animals grow very slowly, probably because of lack of
food
Live for a long time
Low temperature and high pressure may slow down
the processes of life
Or they may need to live a long time to store up
enough energy to reproduce
 Eggs are usually large with a good supply of food of the
larva to make it through its early stages without eating
Deep sea animals only produce a few eggs
 1977 rich flourishing communities are found around
the deep sea hydrothermal vents Alvin
Around the vents there were gigantic worms, clams,
dense clusters of mussels, shrimps, crabs and fishes
Vent communities vary considerablely from place to
place
Over 400 species have been found around different
vents
 Primary producers are chemosynthetic archaea and
bacteria
Hot water rising from the vents is rich in hydrogen
sulfide which is toxic to most organisms but is also an
energy rich molecule
Chemosynthetic prokaryotes use the energy in
hydrogen sulfide to make organic matter they are
the base of the food chain
 Many vent organisms have symbiotic bacteria that live
within them and provide them with organic matter

Kemosinteza:
kisik + sumporovodik + voda + ugljini dioksid eer + sumporna kiselina

602 + 6H2S + 6H20 + 6C02 C6H12O6 + 6H2S04

 Places mostly along continental margins or in sediment
rich basins where hydrogen sulfide and methane seep
out from the sea floor
Chemosynthetic prokaryotes use these molecules to
support a community
 After scavengers eat a whale the decomposing remains
produce hydrogen sulfide and methane and can
support a community similar to the vents and seeps
 Organisms enjoy an energy rich environment and grow
fast and large
Specialized habitats that are tiny oases separated by
vast distances
Unreliable energy sources