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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 ...
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 the North Pacific, 80% of the loggerhead turtle diet consists of neuston prey, [10] and nearly 30% of the Laysan albatross's diet is neuston. [11] Diverse pelagic and reef fish species live at the surface when young, [12] including commercially important fish species like the Atlantic cod, salmon, and billfish. Neuston can be concentrated as ...
The mesopelagic zone has some unique acoustic features. The Sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) channel, where sound travels the slowest due to salinity and temperature variations, is located at the base of the mesopelagic zone at about 600–1,200m. [6] It is a wave-guided zone where sound waves refract within the layer and propagate long ...
The WWF Global 200 work also identifies a number of major habitat types that correspond to the terrestrial biomes: polar, temperate shelves and seas, temperate upwelling, tropical upwelling, tropical coral, pelagic (trades and westerlies), abyssal, and hadal (ocean trench).
The GEBCO chart series was initiated in 1903 by an international group of geographers and oceanographers, under the leadership of Prince Albert I of Monaco.At that time there was an explosion of interest in the study of the natural world and this group recognized the importance of a set of maps describing the shape of the ocean floor.
The following is a list of marine ecoregions, as defined by the WWF and The Nature Conservancy. The WWF/Nature Conservancy scheme groups the individual ecoregions into 12 marine realms, which represent the broad latitudinal divisions of polar, temperate, and tropical seas, with subdivisions based on ocean basins.
The abyssal zone or abyssopelagic zone is a layer of the pelagic zone of the ocean. The word abyss comes from the Greek word ἄβυσσος ( ábussos ), meaning "bottomless". [ 1 ] At depths of 4,000–6,000 m (13,000–20,000 ft), [ 2 ] this zone remains in perpetual darkness.