Pelagic zone

The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into
regions by depth. The word pelagic is derived from Ancient Greek πέλαγος (pélagos) 'open sea'.[1] The
pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the surface of the
sea and the bottom. Conditions in the water column change with depth: pressure increases;
temperature and light decrease; salinity, oxygen, micronutrients (such as iron, magnesium and calcium)
all change. Somewhat analogous to stratification in the Earth's atmosphere, but depending on how
deep the water is, the water column can be divided vertically into up to five different layers (illustrated
in the diagram).

Layers of the pelagic zone (scaled)

Marine life is affected by bathymetry (underwater topography) such as the seafloor, shoreline, or a
submarine seamount, as well as by proximity to the boundary between the ocean and the atmosphere
at the ocean surface, which brings light for photosynthesis, predation from above, and wind stirring up
waves and setting currents in motion. The pelagic zone refers to the open, free waters away from the
shore, where marine life can swim freely in any direction unhindered by topographical constraints.

The oceanic zone is the deep open ocean beyond the continental shelf, which contrasts with the
inshore waters near the coast, such as in estuaries or on the continental shelf. Waters in the oceanic
zone plunge to the depths of the abyssopelagic and further to the hadopelagic. Coastal waters are
generally the relatively shallow epipelagic. Altogether, the pelagic zone occupies 1,330 million km3
(320 million mi3) with a mean depth of 3.68 km (2.29 mi) and maximum depth of 11 km (6.8 mi).[2][3][4]
Pelagic life decreases as depth increases.

The pelagic zone contrasts with the benthic and demersal zones at the bottom of the sea. The benthic
zone is the ecological region at the very bottom, including the sediment surface and some subsurface
layers. Marine organisms such as clams and crabs living in this zone are called benthos. Just above the
benthic zone is the demersal zone. Demersal fish can be divided into benthic fish, which are denser
than water and rest on the bottom, and benthopelagic fish, which swim just above the bottom.
Demersal fish are also known as bottom feeders and groundfish.

Depth and layers

The pelagic zone is subdivided into five vertical regions. From the top down, these are:

Epipelagic (sunlight)

The illuminated zone at the surface of the sea with sufficient light for photosynthesis. Nearly all primary
production in the ocean occurs here, and marine life is concentrated in this zone, including plankton,
floating seaweed, jellyfish, tuna, many sharks and dolphins.

Mesopelagic (twilight)

The most abundant organisms thriving into the mesopelagic zone are heterotrophic bacteria.[5] Animals
living in this zone include swordfish, squid, wolffish and some species of cuttlefish. Many organisms
living here are bioluminescent.[6] Some mesopelagic creatures rise to the epipelagic zone at night to
feed.[6]

Bathypelagic (midnight)

The name stems from Ancient Greek βαθύς 'deep'. The ocean is pitch black at this depth apart from
occasional bioluminescent organisms, such as anglerfish. No plants live here. Most animals survive on
detritus known as "marine snow" falling from the zones above or, like the marine hatchetfish, by
preying on other inhabitants of this zone. Other examples of this zone's inhabitants are giant squid,
smaller squid and the grimpoteuthis or "dumbo octopus". The giant squid is hunted here by deep-
diving sperm whales.
Abyssopelagic (abyssal zone)

The name is derived from Ancient Greek ἄβυσσος 'bottomless' - a holdover from times when the deep
ocean was believed to indeed be bottomless. Among the very few creatures living in the cold
temperatures, high pressures and complete darkness here are several species of squid; echinoderms
including the basket star, swimming cucumber, and the sea pig; and marine arthropods including the
sea spider. Many species at these depths are transparent and eyeless.[6]

Hadopelagic (hadal zone)

The name is derived from the realm of Hades, the Greek underworld. This is the deepest part of the
ocean at more than 6,000 m (20,000 ft) or 6,500 m (21,300 ft), depending on authority. Such depths
are generally located in trenches.

Pelagic ecosystem

The pelagic ecosystem is based on phytoplankton. Phytoplankton manufacture their own food using a
process of photosynthesis. Because they need sunlight, they inhabit the upper, sunlit epipelagic zone,
which includes the coastal or neritic zone. Biodiversity diminishes markedly in the deeper zones below
the epipelagic zone as dissolved oxygen diminishes, water pressure increases, temperatures become
colder, food sources become scarce, and light diminishes and finally disappears.[7]

Pelagic invertebrates

Some examples of pelagic invertebrates include krill, copepods, jellyfish, decapod larvae, hyperiid
amphipods, rotifers and cladocerans.

Thorson's rule states that benthic marine invertebrates at low latitudes tend to produce large numbers
of eggs developing to widely dispersing pelagic larvae, whereas at high latitudes such organisms tend
to produce fewer and larger lecithotrophic (yolk-feeding) eggs and larger offspring.[8][9]

Pelagic fish

Pelagic fish live in the water column of coastal, ocean, and lake waters, but not on or near the bottom
of the sea or the lake. They can be contrasted with demersal fish, which do live on or near the bottom,
and coral reef fish.[10]

Pelagic fish are often migratory forage fish, which feed on plankton, and the larger predatory fish that
follow and feed on the forage fish. Examples of migratory forage fish are herring, anchovies, capelin,
and menhaden. Examples of larger pelagic fish which prey on the forage fish are billfish, tuna, and
oceanic sharks.

Pelagic reptiles
 The pelagic wandering albatross
(Diomedea exulans) ranges over huge
areas of ocean and can circle the globe.

Hydrophis platurus, the yellow-bellied sea snake, is the only one of the 65 species of marine snakes to
spend its entire life in the pelagic zone. It bears live young at sea and is helpless on land. The species
sometimes forms aggregations of thousands along slicks in surface waters. The yellow-bellied sea
snake is the world's most widely distributed snake species.

Many species of sea turtles spend the first years of their lives in the pelagic zone, moving closer to
shore as they reach maturity.

Pelagic birds

Pelagic birds, also called oceanic birds or seabirds, live on open seas and oceans rather than inland or
around more restricted waters such as rivers and lakes. Pelagic birds feed on planktonic crustaceans,
squid and forage fish. Examples are the Atlantic puffin, macaroni penguins, sooty terns, shearwaters,
and Procellariiformes such as the albatross, Procellariidae and petrels.
 Some representative ocean animals (not drawn to scale) within their approximate
depth-defined ecological habitats. Marine microorganisms also exist on the surfaces
and within the tissues and organs of the diverse life inhabiting the ocean, across all
ocean habitats. The animals rooted to or living on the ocean floor are not pelagic but
are benthic animals.[11]

References

1. "pelagic (adj.)" (https://www.etymonline.com/word/pelagic) . Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved

17 February 2020.

2. Costello, Mark John; Cheung, Alan; De Hauwere, Nathalie (2010). "Surface Area and the Seabed Area, Volume,
Depth, Slope, and Topographic Variation for the World's Seas, Oceans, and Countries". Environmental Science
& Technology. 44 (23): 8821–8. Bibcode:2010EnST...44.8821C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010EnST...4
4.8821C) . doi:10.1021/es1012752 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fes1012752) . PMID 21033734 (https://pubmed
.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21033734) .

3. Charette, Matthew; Smith, Walter (2010). "The Volume of Earth's Ocean" (https://doi.org/10.5670%2Foceanog.
2010.51) . Oceanography. 23 (2): 112–4. doi:10.5670/oceanog.2010.51 (https://doi.org/10.5670%2Foceanog.2
010.51) . hdl:1912/3862 (https://hdl.handle.net/1912%2F3862) .

4. Ocean's Depth and Volume Revealed (http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/oceans-depth-and-volume-revealed-

0206/#) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110823051211/http://www.ouramazingplanet.com/oceans-
depth-and-volume-revealed-0206/) 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine OurAmazingPlanet, 19 May
 depth-and-volume-revealed-0206/) 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine OurAmazingPlanet, 19 May
2010.

5. Mazuecos, E.; Arístegui, J.; Vázquez-Domínguez, E.; Ortega-Retuerta, E.; Gasol, J.M.; Reche, I. (2012).
"Temperature control of microbial respiration and growth efficiency in the mesopelagic zone of the South
Atlantic and Indian Oceans" (https://doi.org/10.3354%2Fame01583) . Deep Sea Research Part I:
Oceanographic Research Papers. 95: 131–138. doi:10.3354/ame01583
(https://doi.org/10.3354%2Fame01583) . hdl:10261/95626 (https://hdl.handle.net/10261%2F95626) .

6. The Open Ocean - MarineBio.org (https://web.archive.org/web/20100410222157/http://www.marinebio.com/Oc

eans/open-ocean.asp)

7. Walker P and Wood E (2005) The Open Ocean (https://books.google.com/books?id=O0GpAZsmrVAC&q=intitle:

The+intitle:Open+intitle:Ocean) (volume in a series called Life in the sea), Infobase Publishing, ISBN 978-0-
8160-5705-4.

8. Thorson, G (1957). "Bottom communities (sublittoral or shallow shelf)". In Hedgpeth, J.W. (ed.). Treatise on
Marine Ecology and Palaeoecology. Geological Society of America. pp. 461–534.

9. Mileikovsky, S. A. (1971). "Types of larval development in marine bottom invertebrates, their distribution and
ecological significance: a re-evaluation". Marine Biology. 10 (3): 193–213. doi:10.1007/BF00352809 (https://doi.
org/10.1007%2FBF00352809) . S2CID 84623588 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:84623588) .

10. Lal, Brij V.; Fortune, Kate (January 2000). The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia (https://books.google.com/books
?id=T5pPpJl8E5wC&pg=PA8) . University of Hawaii Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-8248-2265-1.

11. Apprill, A. (2017)"Marine animal microbiomes: toward understanding host–microbiome interactions in a

changing ocean". Frontiers in Marine Science, 4: 222. doi:10.3389/fmars.2017.00222 (https://doi.org/10.3389%
2Ffmars.2017.00222) . Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .

Further reading

Ryan, Paddy "Deep-sea creatures" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080619124248/http://www.teara.govt.n

z/EarthSeaAndSky/SeaLife/DeepSeaCreatures/en) Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated
21 September 2007

"Pelagic-zone (oceanography)" (https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/449062/pelagic-zone)

Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 21 March 2009.

Grantham HS, Game ET, Lombard AT, et al. (2011) "Accommodating Dynamic Oceanographic Processes
and Pelagic Biodiversity in Marine Conservation Planning" (http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0016552
) PLOS One 6(2): e16552. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0016552 (https://doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.001
6552) .

Wrobel, David; Mills, Claudia (2003) [1998]. Pacific Coast Pelagic Invertebrates: A Guide to the Common
Gelatinous Animals (https://archive.org/details/pacificcoastpela00wrob) . Sea Challengers and Monterey
Bay Aquarium. ISBN 0-930118-23-5.