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Water carried into the mantle eventually returns to the surface in eruptions at mid-ocean ridges and hotspots. [131]: 646 Estimates of the amount of water in the mantle range from 1 ⁄ 4 to 4 times the water in the ocean. [131]: 630–634 The deep carbon cycle is the movement of carbon through the Earth's mantle and core.
The organisms responsible for primary production are called primary producers or autotrophs. Most marine primary production is generated by a diverse collection of marine microorganisms called algae and cyanobacteria. Together these form the principal primary producers at the base of the ocean food chain and produce half of the world's oxygen ...
A food web model is a network of food chains. Each food chain starts with a primary producer or autotroph, an organism, such as an alga or a plant, which is able to manufacture its own food. Next in the chain is an organism that feeds on the primary producer, and the chain continues in this way as a string of successive predators.
Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is an organic compound with the formula (CH 3) 3 NO. It is in the class of amine oxides. Although the anhydrous compound is known, trimethylamine N-oxide is usually encountered as the dihydrate. Both the anhydrous and hydrated materials are white, water-soluble solids.
Diatom shells are called frustules and are made from silica. These glass structures have accumulated for over 100 million years leaving rich deposits of nano and microstructured silicon oxide in the form of diatomaceous earth around the globe. The evolutionary causes for the generation of nano and microstructured silica by photosynthetic algae ...
Warmer ocean water holds less oxygen and is more buoyant than cooler water. This leads to reduced mixing of oxygenated water near the surface with deeper water, which naturally contains less oxygen. Warmer water also raises oxygen demand from living organisms; as a result, less oxygen is available for marine life. [40]
The tiny (0.6 μm) marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, discovered in 1986, forms today an important part of the base of the ocean food chain and accounts for much of the photosynthesis of the open ocean [84] and an estimated 20% of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. [85]
Subterranean water can then seep into the ocean along with river discharges, rich with dissolved and particulate organic matter and other nutrients. There are biogeochemical cycles for many other elements, such as for oxygen , hydrogen , phosphorus , calcium , iron , sulfur , mercury and selenium .