Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Muddy streams generally have more sediment in the water, reducing clarity. Clarity is one guide to stream health. Marine substrate can be classified geologically as well. See Green et al., 1999 for a reference. Mollusks and clams that live in areas with substrate, and need them to survive, use their silky byssal threads to cling to it.
Shallow water marine environment refers to the area between the shore and deeper water, [clarification needed] such as a reef wall or a shelf break. [ clarification needed ] This environment is characterized by oceanic, geological and biological conditions, as described below.
Benthic organisms can be divided into two categories based on whether they make their home on the ocean floor or a few centimeters into the ocean floor. Those living on the surface of the ocean floor are known as epifauna. [13] Those who live burrowed into the ocean floor are known as infauna. [10]
From shallow waters to the deep sea, the open ocean to rivers and lakes, numerous terrestrial and marine species depend on the surface ecosystem and the organisms found there. [1] The ocean's surface acts like a skin between the atmosphere above and the water below, and hosts an ecosystem unique to this environment.
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.
In areas with volcanic activity and in the oceanic trenches there are hydrothermal vents – releasing high pressure and extremely hot water and chemicals into the typically freezing water around it. Deep ocean water is divided into layers or zones, each with typical features of salinity, pressure, temperature and marine life, according to ...
Deep-water coral Paragorgia arborea and a Coryphaenoides fish at a depth of 1,255 m (4,117 ft) on the Davidson Seamount. The habitat of deep-water corals, also known as cold-water corals, extends to deeper, darker parts of the oceans than tropical corals, ranging from near the surface to the abyss, beyond 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) where water temperatures may be as cold as 4 °C (39 °F).
All photosynthetic life needs light to grow and how far out into the ocean light can still penetrate through the water column to the floor or benthic zone is what defines the neritic zone. That photic zone, or area where light can penetrate through the water column, is usually above ~100 meters (~328 feet). Some coastal areas have a long area ...