Ocean Biomes

OCEAN BIOMES Presented by: Ina Mae Sison Karla Faith Santamaria Meloh Aleyen Grace Consular

What is an Ocean biome? The vast oceans are the largest ecosystem in the world. The oceans are home to the richest and most diverse habitat on this planet. Right from the microscopic creatures to the gigantic blue whale, an ocean biome supports the highest number of life forms, than all other biomes combined together. Many scientists believe that life evolved in the ocean biome about three million years ago. The oceans are divided into four zones, each buzzing with different life forms. These are: intertidal, pelagic, benthic and abyssal. Due to the sheer expanse of the oceans, there exist many ecosystems based on temperature, sunlight and nutrients of a particular region.

FOUR DIFFERENT ZONES *INTERTIDAL ZONE *PELAGIC ZONE *BENTHIC ZONE *ABYSSAL ZONE

INTERTIDAL ZONE The intertidal zone (also known as the foreshore and sometimes referred to as the littoral zone) is the area that is exposed to the air at low tide and underwater at high tide (for example, the area between tide marks). This area can include many different types of habitats, including steep rocky cliffs, sandy beaches, or wetlands (e.g., vast mudflats). The area can be a narrow strip, as in Pacific islands that have only a narrow tidal range, or can include many meters of shoreline where shallow beach slope interacts with high tidal excursion.

PELAGIC ZONE The pelagic zone includes those waters further from the land, basically the open ocean. The pelagic zone is generally cold though it is hard to give a general temperature range since, just like ponds and lakes, there is thermal stratification with a constant mixing of warm and cold ocean currents. The flora in the pelagic zone include surface seaweeds. The fauna include many species of fish and some mammals, such as whales and dolphins. Many feed on the abundant plankton.

BENTHIC ZONE The benthic zone is the area below the pelagic zone, but does not include the very deepest parts of the ocean. The bottom of the zone consists of sand, slit, and/or dead organisms. Here temperature decreases as depth increases toward the abyssal zone, since light cannot penetrate through the deeper water. Flora are represented primarily by seaweed while the fauna, since it is very nutrient-rich, include all sorts of bacteria, fungi, sponges, sea anemones, worms, sea stars, and fishes.

ABYSSAL ZONE The deep ocean is the abyssal zone. The water in this region is very cold (around 3° C), highly pressured, high in oxygen content, but low in nutritional content. The abyssal zone supports many species of invertebrates and fishes. Mid-ocean ridges (spreading zones between tectonic plates), often with hydrothermal vents, are found in the abyssal zones along the ocean floors. Chemosynthetic bacteria thrive near these vents because of the large amounts of hydrogen sulfide and other minerals they emit. These bacteria are thus the start of the food web as they are eaten by invertebrates and fishes.

GEOGRAPHY Since the Earth’s surface is covered of 70% of water, ocean biomes can be found in most places in the world such as the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Indian Ocean and so on.

WEATHER  the

average temperature of all ocean is about 3.8 degrees Celsius.  Climate does not have much effect on the marine biome, but the marine biome largely affects our terrestrial climate.  Heat from the sun only warms the surface of the water but deep down, oceans everywhere are cold and dark.

Plants  There are two general types of plants found in the

ocean, those having roots that are attached to the ocean bottom and those not having roots which simply drift about with the water. The rooted plants in the ocean are only found in shallow water because there is not enough sunlight to sustain photosynthesis in deeper waters. Since sunlight does not penetrate more than a few hundred feet into the ocean, most of the ocean is not capable of supporting rooted plants. Nevertheless, plants are found throughout most of the oceanic surface waters.

Examples of Plants in the Ocean

Kelp-

Coral-

Green algae Phytoplankton-

Examples of Animals found in the Ocean zooplankton

blue whale

anglerfish

sea otter

FOOD CHAIN

kelp whale

small fish

big fish

FOOD CHAIN

zooplankton

phytoplankton

tuna

herring

human

“If we kill everything in the ocean, and if we pollute the ocean to a point where it can’t sustain life, we’re committing suicide.” -Peter Branchley

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Fill in the blanks. 1. The _____ biome is the largest marine biome of the world. 2. Since the Earth’s surface is covered of ___% of water, ocean biomes can be found in most places in the world. 3. The ______ zone is the area that is exposed to the air at low tide and underwater at high tide. 4. The deep ocean is the ____ zone. 5. The _____ zone includes those waters further from the land, basically the open ocean 6. The average temperature of all ocean is about ___ degrees Celsius.

Write TRUE or FALSE. 7. The rooted plants in the ocean are only found in deep waters because there is enough sunlight to sustain photosynthesis. 8. Many scientists believe that life evolved in the ocean biome about three billion years ago. 9. Climate does have much effect on the marine biome, but the marine biome does not largely affects our terrestrial climate. Identify. 10. What plant is this? 11. What animal is this? Enumeration. 12-15. What are the four different zones in the ocean? (in any order)

A N S иэ׍ W šĻĨđĕ…. E R S

ANSWERS 1. ocean 2. 70 3. intertidal 4. abyssal 5. pelagic 6. 3.8 7. false 8. false

9. false 10. kelp 11. zooplankton 12-15. intertidal benthic abyssal pelagic