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As the origin of marine snow lies in activities within the productive photic zone, the prevalence of marine snow changes with seasonal fluctuations in photosynthetic activity and ocean currents. Marine snow can be an important food source for organisms living in the aphotic zone, particularly for organisms that live very deep in the water column.
In the deep Sargasso Sea, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found what became known as marine snow in which the POM are repackaged into much larger particles which sink at much greater speed, falling like snow. [30] Because of the sparsity of food, the organisms living on and in the bottom are generally ...
Marine snow comprises macroscopic organic aggregates >500 μm in size and originates from clumps of aggregated phytoplankton (phytodetritus), discarded appendicularian houses, fecal matter and other miscellaneous detrital particles, [56] Appendicularians secrete mucous feeding structures or "houses" to collect food particles and discard and ...
Otherwise the first link in the hadal food web are heterotroph organisms that feed on marine snow, both fine particles and the occasional carcass. [23] [25] The hadal zone can reach far below 6,000 m (20,000 ft) deep; the deepest known extends to 10,911 m (35,797 ft). [26]
[15] [16] Food consists of falling organic matter known as 'marine snow' and carcasses derived from the productive zone above, and is scarce both in terms of spatial and temporal distribution. [ 17 ] Instead of relying on gas for their buoyancy, many deep-sea species have jelly-like flesh consisting mostly of glycosaminoglycans , which provides ...
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The aquatic microbial loop is a marine trophic pathway which incorporates dissolved organic carbon into the food chain.. The microbial loop describes a trophic pathway where, in aquatic systems, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is returned to higher trophic levels via its incorporation into bacterial biomass, and then coupled with the classic food chain formed by phytoplankton-zooplankton-nekton.
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