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- Many open ocean organisms live out their existence without ever coming into contact with the shore, the seafloor, or the water’s surface. They spend their entire lives surrounded by water on all sides and do not know that anything else even exists. In the case of the deep open ocean, organisms never even see sunlight.
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Separated into epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic and hadopelagic subzones, areas in the pelagic zone are distinguished by their depth and the ecology of the zone. The epipelagic zone is closest to the surface and stretches down 200 m. An abundance of light allows for photosynthesis by plants and nutrients for animals like tuna an...
Scientists generally classify the epipelagic and mesopelagic zones into what is known as the photic zone or where light penetrates the water. Anything below the photic zone is referred to as the aphotic zone.
Known as the twilight zone, the mesopelagic zone meets the photic zone above and becomes very dark as depth increases. Animals that produce bioluminescence, or light, inhabit this subzone. Because nutrients are limited here, some animals rise to the photic zone at night for food. Many animals in this subzone can eat animals larger than themselves b...
The hatchetfish looks frightening but it is only a few inches long with a huge jaw and long teeth. With photophores underneath their body and under their eyes, it is thought that this fish may also be hiding its silhouette so that its invisible to predators swimming below. Dragonfish and viperfish are very similar in that they both have an enormous...
Adult snipe eels look like a long piece of silly putty stretched out with a flat little head at one end. The jaws of the snipe eel curve out to trap shrimp antennae in the teeth. Also present in the mesopelagic zone are siphonophores, animals related to the jellyfish that stun their prey with a special tentacle. Siphonophores can also form a gas-fi...
Animals living in the bathypelagic zone rely on detritus for food or on eating other animals in this zone. At this depth and pressure, the animals most commonly found are fish, mollusks, crustaceans, and jellyfish. Sperm whales will hunt at these depths on occasion to prey on giant squid. Black and red are the predominant colors of animals here and...
The tentacles are often thrown over prey like a net from above. The snake dragonfish resembles the viperfish or dragonfish of the mesopelagic zone and also comes up to hunt at night but has to travel further as it lives in deeper water than the others. The anglerfish of the bathypelagic zone is well known for its enormous mouth and a lure that rese...
There are only a few organisms adapted to survive in the abyssopelagic zone, a subzone located from 4,000 m to the bottom with freezing temperatures and incredible pressures. Deeper than the abyssopelagic zone are the canyons and submarine trenches of the hadopelagic zone. Animals capable of living at these depths include some species of squid, suc...
Feb 1, 2021 · Which animals do live in the open ocean? The open ocean is home to a huge array of organisms, from microscopic plankton to the largest animal to have ever lived, the blue whale, and every size, shape and spectacular creature in-between. However, life is not evenly distributed throughout the open oceans and much of it is referred to as a ...
They turn energy from the Sun into compounds that feed organisms throughout the entire ocean and produce about half of the oxygen on Earth. Explore the diversity of life forms that exist in the open ocean, from small, delicate jellies to giant fish and enormous whales—and all shapes and sizes in between. + -.
The open sea is a vast ocean habitat where invisible boundaries divide the open sea into different water masses, each with its own characteristic plants and animals. Learn about the open sea and the animals that live there from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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Nov 18, 2014 · As a creature in the open ocean biome, you have two options to survive. One way is to float along on the currents and wait for food to drift by, saving energy as you go. Many jellyfish and their cousins travel by riding the waves and currents of the ocean to find new areas of food.
Jul 10, 2019 · The open ocean produces more than 50 percent of the world's oxygen through photosynthetic algae. Ocean ecosystems can be broadly divided into two kinds: the open ocean or pelagic zone and the seafloor or benthic zone. The pelagic zone is further divided into five ecological zones.
