Deep Sea Floor Plants

See how these deep sea denizens make the most of their deep dark home.

Deep sea floor plants.

Sunlight can penetrate the ocean to a depth of about 600 feet. Humans use algae in 70 of their mass production. Because it gains its food by producing it through photosynthesis the sea grass will only exist in the shallow area where the sunlight still can appear. Algae is found in some ice cream canned food and beer.

The animals that live down that deep are some of the most unusual on. This is called the euphotic zone ninety percent of ocean life lives here including all the ocean plants. By creating protocells in hot alkaline seawater a research team has added to evidence that the origin of life could have been in deep sea hydrothermal vents rather than shallow pools. In fact there have been more missions into space than journeys down to the greatest depths of the oceans.

They grow up to 132 feet below the sea surface and they produce both oxygen and biomass which is type of biological material created from living or dead organisms. This plant grows in large clumps on the sea floor creating a virtual meadow in the sand. Little or no light penetrates this part of the ocean and most of the organisms that live there rely for subsistence on falling organic matter produced in the photic zone for this reason scientists once assumed that life would be sparse. Deep sea exploration has revealed varied landscapes which include volcanoes seamounts hydrothermal vents and cold seeps.

In spite of the fact that water near the sea floor is devoid of oxygen there is a spike in biomass here. The deep sea or deep layer is the lowest layer in the ocean existing below the thermocline and above the seabed at a depth of 1000 fathoms 1800 m or more. The deep sea is a relatively mysterious and unknown part of the earth as only about 1 of the ocean floor has been explored by humans. Algae red and brown algae often share a home with seaweed on the deep sea floor.

Altogether the deep sea floor makes up about 71 of the world s oceans with shallow waters such as continental shelves making up 29. Below that there isn t enough sunlight for photosynthesis so plants can t grow. Just like the grass in the land sea grass also has a long and narrow leaves. Deep sea creatures photos adaptation is the name of the game when you live thousands of feet below the water s surface.

If the sea floor is deeper than 4000 meters the shells tend to dissolve and the sediment is mainly composed of brown clays siliceous remains of radiolarian zooplankton and phytoplankton such as diatoms. Nearly half of the world s sea floors are over 3 000 meters 9 800 ft deep.