Biome Travel Blog- Marine Pelagic

Over Spring Break, I visited a Marine Pelagic Biome in the Pacific Ocean. The marine pelagic biome is the zone of water in the sea that is neither close to the bottom of the sea nor near the shore. The world pelagic is derived from the Ancient Greek word pelagos meaning open sea. There are five different zones in the pelagic region, epipelagic, mesopelagic, bathypelagic, abyssopelagic, and hadopelagic.

 Brooks/Cole, Marine Pelagic, 2002, Thompson Learning, 4/17/14

There are many components to a marine pelagic biome. Abiotic features are physical or climate conditions. Some examples are salinity, which is 3.5%, dissolved gases, which are oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide, temperature, which varies from about 40 degrees fahrenheit to over 100 degrees fahrenheit ( average temperature being 39 degrees fahrenheit), pressure, which is for every 33 feet down, 1 atmosphere, pH, which is usually from 7.5 to 8.4, density, which is 1.025 g/ml at the surface, average rainfall, which can be up to 100 inches, wavelengths, and current strength and direction. 

There are also many biotic, living organisms, such as produces, consumers, and decomposers. The producers consists of phytoplankton which use sunlight from the upper epipelagic zone for photosynthesis.

UC Santa Barbara, Where have all the phytoplankton gone?, 2010, 4/17/14

The consumers include pelagic birds, such as the Atlantic puffin, macaroni penguins, sooty terns, and shearwaters. They feed on crustaceans, squid, and fish. Pelagic fish include migratory forage fish which feed on plankton, such as herring anchovies, capelin, and menhaden. Some fish that feed off of other fish are billfish, tuna, and sharks. 

Bartz, Richard, 14 July 2013, 4/17/14

Invertebrates include krill, copepods, jellyfish, decapod larve, hyperid amphipods, ratifiers, and cladocera. Reptiles include the pelagic sea snake. 

Since the marine pelagic biome does not include the shore or the bottom of the ocean, the decomposers do not include crabs, sea urchins, and shrimp. It does include, however, many types of bacteria and fungi. 

Over 40% of the worlds ocean are heavily impacted from human activities. Human activities include fishing, costal development, pollution from shipping, sewage dump age into the ocean, noise pollution from boats, chemicals being released, and oil spills. 

 U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 11 February 2005, 4/17/13

State College Florida, Marine Environment, 4/17/14 

Food chain -> phytoplankton -> herring -> tuna -> shark

Wikipedia commons, 30 August 2009, 4/17/14

An example of a symbiotic relationship in the marine pelagic zone is the whale shark and the remora. Their relationship is called Commensalism, which means the remora benefits from the shark's presence, but the shark is unaffected. The remora catches scraps of food from the shark's meal cleans the food off of the shark's body. 

Bird, Jonathan, 1998, 4/17/14

In more recent times, due to the oceans becoming more acidic, the living organisms in the pelagic zone are forced to adapt to it. Lower pH levels in the ocean mean that organisms like algae and plankton may be in danger, and that could affect the whole food chain. A study at UC Berkley showed that coccolithophores put into acidic environments were able to grow faster than in the normal acidity. They were able to adapt so that in the future they can survive. Also over the years, sharks have adapted to having their bodies taper to points at both the snout and tail, making less water resistance. This and other adaptations that help decrease drag, help the sharks swim faster, making it easier for them to catch their prey.

This video isn't specifically about marine pelagic but still informative and entertaining:
Marine Biome Song