ZOL 353 Lecture 42: Benthos - From Shelf to Deep Sea
Document Summary
Benthos: from the shelf to the deep sea. Sediment type and benthic distribution: deposit feeders dominate muds, uspe(cid:374)sio(cid:374) feeders (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t fu(cid:374)(cid:272)tio(cid:374) i(cid:374) (cid:373)ud, clogging, destabilizing, top layer has high water content due to burrowing and deposit feeding, most dominant type of water bottom. Environmental stability in the deep sea: shelf environments unstable, seasonally, decadally (due to oscillations) In deep time due to e. g. glacial advance and retreat: depth dampens these effects, temperature in the abyss almost stable. Seasonal variation in bottom-water temperatures decreases with increasing depth. Latitudinal diversity gradient in deep-sea benthos: follows surface pattern but to a lower degree, greater diversity in the tropics. Figure 1 variation in species diversity of various benthic animal groups as a function of increasing water depth: reasons unclear, may relate to pulses of export of seasonal primary productivity from surface. Species diversity of benthos in the deep sea versus latitude for isopoda,
