1. THE DEEP

2. Aphotic Zone (Deep Pelagic)
Below 1000m (3280 ft)
Explored < 1%

3. Pressure At 1000 m is 100X greater than sea level pressure
Surface organisms would be crushed

4. After nearly 5,000 m down

5. Adaptations Fluid is almost incompressible
Fluid in animals’ bodies match surrounding water

6. Dive 1000m, over an hour
Lungs collapse flat

7. Cold 1 - 2 C (34-37 F) Body temp close to water Metabolism slow
Reproduce less and later
Live longer

8. Food is Scarce 5% of food produced in the euphotic zone No migrators
Need to conserve energy…How?

9. Be Blobby

10. “Blobby” Flabby, watery flesh Weak skeletons No scales No swim bladder
Sit and float

11. Be small Many angler fish are 10 cm or less!
Largest is 1m (3 ft) and 9 kg (20 lb.)

12. Eat anything!

13. Huge Mouths and expandable stomachs
Swallower Eel

14. Use vibrations to find food
Hairy angler has sensitive antennae
Use lateral line to sense vibrations

15. Go fishing!
Dragonfish Anglerfish

16. It’s Dark! Small eyes Black, red color Bioluminescence:
--To attract prey or find mate
--Not for counterlighting

17. Sex in the Dark 1) Use Bioluminescence to ID species
2) Be a hermaphrodite
3) Release chemicals to find mate

18. Sex in the Dark 4) Attach yourself to your mate!
Males Goal: Search for female
Have muscular bodies, large eyes, and organ to “smell”

19. Sex in the Dark Male bites female and they become fused
Male provides sperm to female

20. World’s Smallest Fish
Male, sexually mature is 6.2 mm (less than a ¼ inch)
Female is 46 mm (1.8 inches)

21. Disphotic Zone (Mesopelagic)
150 m depth
Not enough light for photosynthesis
10-20% food from surface is available

22. Size and Shape
Small 10 to 15 cm
Long flattened body

23. Lantern fish

24. Large eyes Hatchetfish Light sensitive for dim light Winteria
Look up at surface and spot silhouettes of prey
Two fields of vision

25. Mouths
Large, hinged extendible jaws
Needle-like teeth
Eat anything

26. Sabertooth Viperfish
Only a couple of inches long

27. Color Black, or black with silver sides
Counterillumination/counterlighting

28. Other things besides fish may be transparent

29. Bioluminescence

30. Bioluminescence Photophores for camouflage Attract prey Attract mates
Defense

31. Migrators vs. Nonmigrators
Swim up to surface to eat at night
Well-developed muscles and bone
Swim bladder
Sit and wait
Less muscle,flabby
No swim bladder
Weak bones

32. Lantern fish Migrators
Largest migration of life on earth
1700 m to 100 m (3 hour trip)
Create a false bottom on sonar

33. Deep-Sea Floor
rabbit fish and tripod fish

34. Deep sea fish
Rat tail fish and hagfish

35. Deep sea fish Cruise the bottom
Fecal pellets and the occasional whale for food
Larger, long bodies, strong muscles, small eyes
Not much bioluminescence
Dark brown, black

36. Hydrothermal Vents

37. Mid-Ocean Ridge System
Oceanic plates are pulling apart

39. Hydrothermal Vents At mid-ocean ridges Seawater seeps through cracks
Gets super heated
Forced back up through crust

40. Black Smokers Warm 50-68 degrees F Hot! 662 degrees F
Heated water dissolves minerals
When it cools, minerals deposit around vents

43. Hydrogen sulfide
1. Energy-rich molecule
2. Toxic to most organisms

44. Bacteria - Chemosynthesis
Basis of food chain
Use hydrogen sulfide for energy

45. Bacteria as producers 1. Live inside animals Symbiotic
Bacteria get hydrogen sulfide, animals get food

46. Pompeii worm

47. Pompeii Worm

48. Tube Worm

49. Up to 2 m tall Riftia tube worm

50. Bacteria as producers 2. Filter feeders (mussels, clams)
3. Eaten directly (shrimp scrape bacteria off chimneys)

51. Mussels (filter feed) and eel

52. Submersible

53. Mussels

55. Vents don’t last Organisms get “cooked” 20 - 75 years
Organisms get very large

56. Cold Seeps

57. Cold Seeps At continental margins
Hydrogen sulfide and methane for chemosynthesis
Grow slower, old and stable

58. Cold Seeps

61. Whale carcasses Decomposing - hydrogen sulfide
Supports chemosynthetic bacteria
Link to vents??
One about every 25 Km

62. Worms at whale carcass No eyes No mouth, stomach
Green “roots” grow into bone and digest fat and oils with the help of bacteria

63. Worms at whale carcass Females, 2-7 cm with large egg sac
Microscopic male worms living inside the females
Eggs/larvae float until they find another whale
Related to tube worms at hydrothermal vents

64. Whale bone with worms
Females, 2-7 cm with large egg sac
Microscopic male worms living inside the females
Eggs/larvae float until they find another whale
Related to tube worms at hydrothermal vents