Plants And Animals On The Ocean Floor

12 gorgeous animals of the coral reef.

Plants and animals on the ocean floor. In most of the world the ocean floor is very deep averaging 3 790 meters 12 430 ft in depth. Ocean plants are rarely talked about but with 70 percent of the world covered in water they play a vital role in oxygenating oceans around the world protecting certain species of aquatic animals from predators and outside elements including human activities and helping animals thrive by being their primary food source. The main class of underwater flora in the oceans is the seagrasses of which there are 72 species. In the sea floor you will see a plant called as sea grass.

Many people think of seaweeds when they think of plants that grow in the ocean but seaweeds are not true plants. Just like the land above the surface the ocean floor has mountains volcanoes deep trenches and plants and animals. Contrary to popular belief most of the sea floor known as the open ocean is not really a habitat for animals just a place they pass by on the way to somewhere else. 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.

Animals in the water column are almost entirely dependent on primary production from living phytoplankton while animals on the ocean floor always or sometimes feed on detritus. Despite the fact that most animal species found in the ocean are found in the richer shallower waters animal species can be found throughout the oceans and there are even some animals which scavenge for particles of food on the ocean floor miles beneath the surface. They usually remain suspended above the sea floor but forage for invertebrates on the floor. Coccolithophorids and mollusks including ammonites rudists freshwater snails and mussels and those organisms whose food chain included these shell builders.

The body of this octopus is nearly completely transparent. News environment business policy science. Mangroves also arguably live on the ocean floor near the shore. The telescope octopus is another unique animal of the deep sea.

The bottom of the ocean is called the ocean floor. Search the site go. It drifts through the ocean at depths of over 2000 m and often remains vertically suspended above the seafloor.