Bathypelagic Zone (Midnight Zone)

Assembled from 18 blocks · 3 evidence · 21 related

1. Story
2. Conventionally about 1,000 m to 4,000 m. No measurable sunlight reaches it; NOAA describes the region below 1,000 m as the aphotic zone of eternal darkness, with the bathypelagic running from 1,000 to 4,000 m. Temperature is near-uniformly cold and pressure rises by roughly one atmosphere for every 10 m of depth. Because no light means no photosynthesis, the entire energy budget of this zone is imported from above as sinking particles, or in rare places from chemosynthesis at seeps and vents.
3. Knowledge
4. Bathypelagic Zone (Midnight Zone)
5. Abyssopelagic Zone (Abyssal Zone)
6. Connections
7. Mesopelagic Zone (Twilight Zone)
8. Abyssopelagic Zone (Abyssal Zone)
9. Marine Snow
10. Giant Tube Worm (Riftia pachyptila)
11. Bathypelagic Zone (Midnight Zone)
12. Hadal Zone
13. Mariana Trench
14. Marine Snow
15. Evidence
16. Sunlight does not penetrate below roughly 1,000 m; the aphotic zone below that comprises the bathypelagic (1,000-4,000 m), the abyss (4,000-6,000 m) and the hadal (6,000 m and deeper). Attenuation is continuous, and these depths are stated as conventional bands, not measured discontinuities.
17. The water column is conventionally divided into five zones - sunlight (epipelagic, 0-200 m), twilight (mesopelagic, 200-1,000 m), midnight (bathypelagic, 1,000-4,000 m), abyssal (abyssopelagic, 4,000-6,000 m) and hadal (below 6,000 m).
18. Below the photic zone the ecosystem depends on sinking organic material (marine snow) and on food falls; bioluminescence is the dominant light source, and deep pelagic predators such as anglerfishes use luminous lures in a food-scarce environment.