Читать книгу Oceans For Dummies - Joseph Kraynak - Страница 84

The epipelagic zone (commonly referred to as the sunlight zone) is the top 200 meters (about 650 feet) of the ocean, where enough sunlight is available for plant life to grow and support a large, diverse population of marine life. Because it forms the ocean’s surface, the epipelagic zone experiences greater variations (compared to the other vertical zones) in temperature and other conditions due to climate, local weather patterns, and proximity to large land masses.

Who lives here? Lots of plankton (tiny plants and animals that float, as shown in Figure 4-3); nekton (tiny plants and animals that swim); jellyfish; sea turtles (see Figure 4-4); a variety of fish including tuna (see Figure 4-5), marlin, salmon, and sharks; and cetaceans (dolphins and whales).

Courtesy of Christian Sardet/CNRS/Tara expeditions, from Plankton—Wonders of the Drifting World, Univ Chicago Press 2015. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

FIGURE 4-3: Plankton.

It’s not as though these zones are sectioned off like office cubicles. Plenty of animals roam freely from one zone to another. Animals that need to breathe air, such as sea turtles, dolphins, and whales, generally hang out closer to the surface just so they can get their heads (or noses or blowholes) above water regularly but may dive deep into the other zones to find food. Some deep-sea creatures may do the opposite and venture up from the deep to shallow water for other benefits, such as food, light, warmth, and lower water pressure.