Life in the Ocean
A.
- 71% of the earth is covered with ocean
- The water in the earth comprises more than 90% of the biosphere by volume
- Covers 360 million square kilometers
- We have only studied less than 10% of the ocean
- Explored no more that 1% of the deep ocean floor
- Marine animals have very diverse body types than land animals
- Unique and odd creatures in the ocean
- Seawater is 800 times as dense as air
- Water absorbs light differently than air does
- Phytoplankton are seasonal and vary by region
- The ocean does not contain as much plant life because the concentrations of critical nutrients are lower than on land
- The distribution of nutrients in the water depend on the temperature stratification of the ocean
- Cold, heavy water receives a constant rain of organic detritus from above
- The separation between warm water at the surface and cold water at depth is so great that hurricanes and typhoons cannot completely mix the two
- Temperature and depth are variables that control the availability of oxygen in the water
- Deep sea has a high diversity in species but low in density
- Marine life's habitat are the ones that are the most severely damaged
- Marine ecosystems are left out of most discussions about saving biodiversity
B. The ocean serves as one of the most interesting habitat with the most interesting creature on our earth. The ocean is still widely unknown and serves as one of the biggest mysteries to us humans. Even though the ocean covers 71 percent of the earth, we have only studied less than 10 percent of the ocean and explored no more than 1 percent of the ocean floor. With so much left to discover, researchers are predicting that there are much more species in the ocean that have not been found yet. The deep sea is very diverse when it comes to its creatures and there are very unique and odd creatures in the ocean. This is because the conditions underwater have a very different affect on the species living there than the species living on land. Seawater is 800 times denser than air as well as water doesn't absorb light differently than air does. The ocean is so dense that the two layers that make up the ocean (the warm surface and the cold depth) have a hard time mixing even when a hurricane or a typhoon were to happen. Another affect that oceans have that us land creature don't is the fact the land creature can dramatically change the ocean and the species living within them. Trying to save the ocean as well as the creatures living in it that have yet to be discovered is a big interest in scientist.
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C. I think it is very interesting that the ocean is still a big mystery. With so much left to discover and so much land we can explore deep at the bottom of the ocean, I'm very interested in what else we don't know. There are scientist that are more concerned with the findings on other plants like Mars, but we haven't even explored our own planet yet. I believe we should put our efforts into trying to turn that less than 10% and make it higher. We never know what we could find in the ocean and whatever discovery we do make, can't hurt our race, it just expands our education of our own planet that we live on. A problem that I can see would be our pollution of this ocean. After conducting many labs and assignments, I have learned a lot about what us humans do to this unknown body of water and I think that if we keep polluting the ocean the way that we are now, there won't be much species to discover.
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