NeS Lesson #1 - Deep Sea Communities Slideshow Rvsd72317

By Gloria A. Brooks
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Cover – A Dumbo octopus with deep sea corals. Images credit: NOAA.
All images – Creative Commons & public domain images used.
All images used in this presentation are either used with Creative Commons
license or are in the public domain.
Background image: © 2014 Rebeccarawrr. Licensed under CC-BY.

What are Deep Sea Communities?
• Organism groups associated by shared deep sea habitats
• Why mostly unexplored? technological, logistical & expense challenges
visiting deep sea biomes (large natural habitat)
• Since 19th century - biodiversity discovered existing in deep seas
• 4 main energy sources & nutrients - marine snow, whale falls,
hydrothermal vents, cold seeps
• Sparse food makes bottom dwellers opportunistic (take immediate
advantage of new food sources)
• Deep sea creatures special adaptations – very slow growth, larval
dispersal, ability to use ‘transient’ food resource
A Sabortooth fish Coccorella atrata, a deep
sea fish, similar to the saber-toothed tigers,
named for their oversized, recurved
palatine teeth. Found at depths of 600 –
3,300 feet. A public domain image.

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•
•
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Dana viperfish
Elongated bristlemouth fish
Frill shark by Mario
Sánchez Bueno
Giant
Squid
A Chain catshark (mesopelagic zone), public domain image.
A deep sea cucumber
photographed by NOAA.

History of Deep Sea Community Discovery
• Before 19th century - scientists assumed deep
sea life sparse
• 1870’s, Sir Charles Thompson – with colleagues
aboard Challenger expedition discovered many
deep-sea creature varieties
• February 17, 1977 - 2 scientists, J. Corliss and J.
van Andel, first witnessed dense chemosynthetic
clam beds from submersible DSV Alvin
• 1979, eastern Pacific - first discovery of deep-sea
chemosynthetic community at hydrothermal
vents during geological explorations
• Challenger Deep, southern Mariana Trench near
Mariana Islands - deepest surveyed point of all
oceans; reported depth: 4,475 fathoms (10.99
kilometers or 6.83 miles)
Images – Left: USO (Unidentified Swimming Organism). Right: Okeanos Explorer. Images, courtesy of the
NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2015 Hohonu Moana.

History of Deep Sea
Community Discovery Part II
• 1960, Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard descended to bottom
of Challenger Deep in Trieste bathyscaphe; saw small
flounder-like fish moving away from bathyscaphe spotlight
• March 1995 - Japanese remote operated vehicle (ROV) Kaiko
second vessel to reach Challenger Deep bottom
• May 31, 2009, Nereus, hybrid remotely operated vehicle
(HROV) - only vehicle capable of exploring ocean depths
beyond 7000 meters; reached Challenger Deep depth of
10,902 meters
• June 2009, sonar mapping of Challenger Deep Simrad EM120
using multibeam sonar bathymetry system aboard R/V Kilo
Moana, maximum depth: 10,971 meters (6.817 miles)
Tube worms from the Okeanos Explorer deep sea expeditions. Photographed by NOAA.

Deep Sea Creature Adaptations
to Great Pressure
• Great pressure - greatest environmental factor acting on deep-sea organisms
• Animal adaptations allow survival in sub-photic zones extreme pressure
• Pressure coping - many small fish, usually not exceeding 25 cm in length
Greater living depth adaptations:
• Gelatinous (jelly-like) flesh
• Minimal skeletal structure
• No excess collapsible cavities
(holes or pockets), i.e. swim
bladders (bony fish gas filled sac
aiding buoyancy)
“Life on the abyssal sea floor (depths
ranging from 4000-6000 m) near the
Hudson Canyon off the coast of New
Jersey. Photo taken using the Deep
Submersible Research Vessel (DSRV)
Alvin's camera system. Image courtesy
of Deep East 2001, NOAA/OER.”
• Most deep sea under pressures
between 200 and 600 atm
(atmospheres of pressure); pressure
range from 20 to 1,000 atm

Deep Sea Temperatures
• From epipelagic base (or bottom) - temperature drops over several
hundred meters to 5 or 6 °C (42 or 43 degrees Celsius) at 1,000
meters; temperatures decrease slowly towards bottom
• Below 3,000 to 4,000 m, water isothermal (constant temperature);
no seasonal or annual temperature changes; no other habitat on
Earth with such constant temperatures
• Deepest ocean water temperatures – mostly between 0-3 degrees
Celsius (32-37.5 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Hydrothermal vents – water temperature from "black smoker"
chimneys as high as 400 °C (752 degrees Fahrenheit)
Background image – A hydrothermal vent. Image credit: NOAA.
“The red line in this illustration shows
a typical seawater temperature
profile. In the thermocline,
temperature decreases rapidly from
the mixed upper layer of the ocean
(called the epipelagic zone) to much
colder deep water in the thermocline
(mesopelagic zone). Below 3,300 feet
to a depth of about 13,100 feet,
water temperature remains constant.
At depths below 13,100 feet, the
temperature ranges from near
freezing to just above the freezing
point of water as depth increases.”
Quote and diagram from NOAA.

• Upper photic
zone - filled with
particle organic
matter (POM);
productive,
especially in
coastal and
upwelling areas
• POM composed of
dead plant &
animal matter
Deep Sea Community Food
Source: Marine Snow
• Time delay long
enough for
particles to
remineralize and
be taken by
organisms in
food webs
• Most POM – small, light;
may take many years to
settle through water
column to deep ocean
floor
Image – Marine snow. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos
Explorer Program, MCR Expedition 2011.

Deep Sea Community Food Source: Whale Falls
• Whale fall (or death) - most important deep sea community event
• Brings hundreds of tons of organic food matter to sea bottom
Whale Fall Community Consumption Three Stages:
1. Mobile scavenger stage: big and mobile scavengers arrive
immediately after whale falls to bottom; organisms can include:
amphipods, crabs, sleeper sharks, hagfish
“A whale fall community, including
bacteria mats, clams in the
sediments, crabs, worms, and a
variety of other invertebrates.
The 35-ton gray whale carcass
originally settled on the seafloor
at 1,674 meters depth in 1998.
This photo was taken six years
later.” Image and quote by NOAA.

Whale Fall Consumption Stages 2 & 3 Continued
2. Opportunistic stage: example organism: tube worm,
Osedax; larva born without a sex; surrounding
environment determines larva’s sex; larva settles on whale
bone, turns into female; larva settles on or in female,
turns into dwarf male
3. Sulfophilic stage: further bone decomposition and
seawater sulfate reduction occurs; bacteria create
sulphide-rich environment similar to hydrothermal vents;
organisms can include: polynoids, bivalves, gastropods and
other sulphur-loving creatures
Background transparency – A North Atlantic Right Whale by H. Zell.
A whale fall off the coast of San
Diego, CA, photographed by NOAA.

Chemosynthesis from Hydrothermal Vents
• Chemosynthesis definition – organic compounds bacteria
synthesis (combination causing reaction) or other living
organisms using energy derived from reactions involving
inorganic chemicals, typically without sunlight
• 1977 Hydrothermal vents discovered by scientists from Scripps
Institution of Oceanography
• Hydrothermal vents discovery - located at plate boundaries: East
Pacific, California, Mid-Atlantic ridge, China and Japan
• New ocean basin material made in regions such as Mid-Atlantic
ridge as tectonic plates pull away from each other
• Plate spreading rate - 1–5 cm/yr.
Image - White flocculent mats in and around the extremely
gassy, high-temperature (>100°C, 212°F) white smokers at
Champagne Vent. Image by NOAA and in the public domain.

Chemosynthesis from Hydrothermal Vents Part II
• Cold sea water circulates down through cracks between two plates;
cold water heats as passes through hot rock
• Minerals & sulfides dissolve into water during rock interaction
• Hydrothermal vent creation - hot solutions emanate from active subseafloor
rift
• Bacteria chemosynthesis provides energy and organic
matter for whole food web in vent ecosystems
A deep sea vent
diagram created
by Hannes Grobb.
An active hydrothermal vent chimney
spewing out hydrothermal fluids. Image
credit: NOAA.

A Hydrothermal Vent Diagram
A public domain image.

Organisms at Hydrothermal Vents
• Giant tube worms - grow up to 2.4 m (7 ft. 10 in) tall
because of rich nutrients
• Over 300 new species discovered
• Entire ecosystems independent from sunlight; first evidence
Earth can support life without sun
Images – Left: immense deep sea community by a hydrothermal vent. Right: Giant
tube worms. Images by NOAA and in the public domain.

Cold Seeps
Background image – Methane
streams coming from a cold-seep
site on the upper slope (water
depth less than 500 meters
[1,640 feet]) offshore Virginia.
Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos
Explorer Program.
• Sometimes called cold vents
• Ocean floor area where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other
hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepages occur, often in brine pool form
• "Cold” – doesn’t mean seepage temperature lower than surrounding
sea water; its temperature often slightly higher
• Biomes support several endemic (plants or animals native or
restricted to certain area) species
• Develop unique topography over time; reactions between methane
and seawater create carbonate rock formations and reefs

Cold Seep Types
• Distinguished according to depth,
as shallow cold seeps and deep
cold seeps
Different Cold Seep Types:
• Oil/gas
• Gas - methane seeps
• Gas hydrate
• Brine - form brine pools
• Mud volcanoes
• Pockmarks
A methane seep
Mud Volcano
Deep water gas plumes
Background image – Brine pools.
All images on this slide photographed by NOAA.

References
1. University of Hawaii Marine Center (4 June 2009). "Inventory of
ScienAfic Equipment aboard the R/V KILO MOANA". Honolulu, Hawaii:
University of Hawaii. Retrieved 18 June 2010.
2. Smith, Jr, H.A. Ruhl, B.J. BeV, D.S.M. BilleV, R.S. LampiV & R.S.
Kaufmann (17 November 2009). "Climate, carbon cycling, and deepocean
ecosystems". PNAS 106 (46): 19211–19218. Bibcode:2009PNAS..
10619211S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0908322106. PMC 2780780. PMID
19901326. Retrieved 19 June 2010.
3. Jorge Csirke (1997). "II. The Limits of Marine ProducAvity". In Edward
A. Laws. El Niño and the Peruvian Anchovy Fishery (series: Global
Change InstrucAon Program) (PDF). Sausalito: University Science
Books. p. 4. doi:10.1023/A:1008801515441. ISBN 0-935702-80-6.
Retrieved 18 June 2010.
4. Encyclopædia Britannica (2010). "PhoAc zone". Encyclopædia
Britannica Online. Retrieved 18 June 2010. External link in |publisher=
(help)
5. Wikipedia Deep Sea CommuniAes arAcle: hVps://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Deep_sea_communiAes
A deep-sea squid of the
family Cranchiidae. It has a
large ammonia-filled body
chamber used to help with
buoyancy. Image from
NOAA Okeanos Explorer.

Thank you for watching!
A squat lobster on a deep-sea octocoral. Image courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer
Program, Gulf of Mexico 2014 Expedition.