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The mesopelagic zone plays a key role in the ocean's biological pump, which contributes to the oceanic carbon cycle. In the biological pump, organic carbon is produced in the surface euphotic zone where light promotes photosynthesis. A fraction of this production is exported out of the surface mixed layer and into the mesopelagic zone.
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 ...
The mesopelagic zone is a layer of the oceanic zone lying beneath the epipelagic zone and above the bathypelagic zone, at depths generally between 200 and 1,000 m (656 and 3,280 ft). The mesopelagic zone receives very little sunlight and is home to many bioluminescent organisms.
The particulate organic carbon formed in the euphotic zone is processed by marine microorganisms (microbes), zooplankton and their consumers into organic aggregates (marine snow), which is then exported to the mesopelagic (200–1000 m depth) and bathypelagic zones by sinking and vertical migration by zooplankton and fish. [11] [12] [13]
The mesopelagic zone is sometimes referred to as the twilight zone; it extends from 200m to around 1000m. In the deeper layers of the NPSG, species higher up on the food chain will migrate vertically or horizontally within or in and out of the gyre.
The mesopelagic zone is the disphotic zone, meaning light there is minimal but still measurable. The oxygen minimum layer exists somewhere between a depth of 700 and 1,000 metres (2,300-3,300 ft) deep depending on the place in the ocean.
This is the most common form of vertical migration. Organisms migrate on a daily basis through different depths in the water column. Migration usually occurs between shallow surface waters of the epipelagic zone and deeper mesopelagic zone of the ocean or hypolimnion zone of lakes. [2] There are three recognized types of diel vertical migration:
Most mesopelagic organisms, including mesopelagic fish, squid and siphonophores, make daily vertical migrations. They ascend at night into the shallow epipelagic zone , often following similar migrations of zooplankton , and return to the mesopelagic depths for safety when there is daylight.