Producers
Marine snow- Marine snow is the “rain of food” that slowly falls from the top or middle layers of the ocean zones to the ocean floor. It can also be called detritus. The marine snow is the nutrient that feeds at the bottom of the food pyramid. It’s mostly made up of dead and decomposing animals, dejection, silt and other organic wastes that had been washed into the sea from land. The marine snow got it’s name because it resembles snow with the white fluffy components. As the dead organic matter gets lower into the deep ocean it start to decompose into small flakes and clamps. The larger the clamp is the faster it falls, however sometimes it take a few weeks for it to finally reach the ocean floor. Scientists set sediment traps on the ocean floor to study about the travel of marine snow. It shows from data that 815 million tons of carbon reaches the ocean floor every year, …show more content…
Many deep sea organisms feed by using a method known as filter feeding to separate food particles from water. This is typically done by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure in their body, capturing all the nutrients. The category of filter feeders include a wide range of animals such as bivalves, sponges, barnacles, and some types of snails and fish. Filter feeders does not only exist in the deep, but can also exist in the shallow and on land. Baleen whales and flamingos also use similar method of filtering to obtain their food. They suck in water containing food then press out the excess water out past sieve-like mouthparts, left with only food in their mouths. Depending on the animal, it is normal for larger filter feeders to consume smaller filter feeders such as the larvae of crustaceans and bivalves. In the Bathypelagic zone filter feeders include glass sponge and tube worms. (Paleontological Research Institution,
Marine snow- Marine snow is the “rain of food” that slowly falls from the top or middle layers of the ocean zones to the ocean floor. It can also be called detritus. The marine snow is the nutrient that feeds at the bottom of the food pyramid. It’s mostly made up of dead and decomposing animals, dejection, silt and other organic wastes that had been washed into the sea from land. The marine snow got it’s name because it resembles snow with the white fluffy components. As the dead organic matter gets lower into the deep ocean it start to decompose into small flakes and clamps. The larger the clamp is the faster it falls, however sometimes it take a few weeks for it to finally reach the ocean floor. Scientists set sediment traps on the ocean floor to study about the travel of marine snow. It shows from data that 815 million tons of carbon reaches the ocean floor every year, …show more content…
Many deep sea organisms feed by using a method known as filter feeding to separate food particles from water. This is typically done by passing the water over a specialized filtering structure in their body, capturing all the nutrients. The category of filter feeders include a wide range of animals such as bivalves, sponges, barnacles, and some types of snails and fish. Filter feeders does not only exist in the deep, but can also exist in the shallow and on land. Baleen whales and flamingos also use similar method of filtering to obtain their food. They suck in water containing food then press out the excess water out past sieve-like mouthparts, left with only food in their mouths. Depending on the animal, it is normal for larger filter feeders to consume smaller filter feeders such as the larvae of crustaceans and bivalves. In the Bathypelagic zone filter feeders include glass sponge and tube worms. (Paleontological Research Institution,