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Water is the medium of the oceans, the medium which carries all the substances and elements involved in the marine biogeochemical cycles. Water as found in nature almost always includes dissolved substances, so water has been described as the "universal solvent" for its ability to dissolve so many substances.
"The findings break from the traditional interpretation of marine ecology found in textbooks, which states that nearly all sunlight in the ocean is captured by chlorophyll in algae. Instead, rhodopsin-equipped bacteria function like hybrid cars, powered by organic matter when available — as most bacteria are — and by sunlight when nutrients ...
The ocean represents the largest continuous planetary ecosystem, hosting an enormous variety of organisms, which include microscopic biota such as unicellular eukaryotes (protists). Despite their small size, protists play key roles in marine biogeochemical cycles and harbour tremendous evolutionary diversity.
About 0.085% of the 300,000 Angiosperms believed to exist can be found in marine like environments. [1] Some examples of what plants in this kingdom exist are mosses, ferns, seagrasses, mangroves, and salt marsh plants—the last three being the three major communities of angiosperms in marine waters.
The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor. A marine food web is a food web of marine life. At the base of the ocean food web are single-celled algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton.
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is available in many forms in the ocean, and is responsible for supporting the growth of bacteria and microorganisms in the ocean. The two main sources of this dissolved organic matter are; decomposition of higher trophic level organisms like plants and fish, and secondly DOM in runoffs that pass through soil with ...
Marine plants can be found in intertidal zones and shallow waters, such as seagrasses like eelgrass and turtle grass, Thalassia. These plants have adapted to the high salinity of the ocean environment. Light is only able to penetrate the top 200 metres (660 ft) so this is the only part of the sea where plants can grow. [77]
Organic matter produced in the sunlit layer of the ocean and delivered to the sediments is either consumed by organisms or buried. The organic matter consumed by organisms is used to synthesize biomass (i.e. growth) converted to carbon dioxide through respiration, or returned to the sediment as faeces. This cycle can occur many times before ...