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Altogether, the pelagic zone occupies 1,330 million km 3 (320 million mi 3) 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 ...
A school of large pelagic predator fish (bluefin trevally) sizing up a school of small pelagic prey fish (). Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters—being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore—in contrast with demersal fish that live on or near the bottom, and reef fish that are associated with coral reefs.
In the pelagic zone, herbivores graze on periphyton and macrophytes or pick phytoplankton out of the water column. Carnivores include fishes that feed on zooplankton in the water column (zooplanktivores), insects at the water's surface, on benthic structures, or in the sediment ( insectivores ), and those that feed on other fish ( piscivores ).
Layers of the pelagic zone. The bathypelagic zone or bathyal zone (from Greek βαθύς (bathýs), deep) is the part of the open ocean that extends from a depth of 1,000 to 4,000 m (3,300 to 13,000 ft) below the ocean surface. It lies between the mesopelagic above and the abyssopelagic below.
The oceanic zone is typically defined as the area of the ocean lying beyond the continental shelf (e.g. the neritic zone), but operationally is often referred to as beginning where the water depths drop to below 200 metres (660 ft), seaward from the coast into the open ocean with its pelagic zone.
Pelagic zones. The mesopelagic zone includes the region of sharp changes in temperature, salinity and density called the thermocline, halocline, and pycnocline respectively. [1] The temperature variations are large; from over 20 °C (68 °F) at the upper layers to around 4 °C (39 °F) at the boundary with the bathyal zone. [5]
Marine habitats can be broadly divided into pelagic and demersal habitats. Pelagic habitats are the habitats of the open water column, away from the bottom of the ocean. Demersal habitats are the habitats that are near or on the bottom of the ocean. An organism living in a pelagic habitat is said to be a pelagic organism, as in pelagic fish.
Pelagic sediment or pelagite is a fine-grained sediment that accumulates as the result of the settling of particles to the floor of the open ocean, far from land. These particles consist primarily of either the microscopic, calcareous or siliceous shells of phytoplankton or zooplankton ; clay -size siliciclastic sediment ; or some mixture of these.