The Ocean Biome covers nearly half of the earth but, despite its vast area, it if often overlooked as a habitat due mainly to its saltiness. Despite it's briny taste, though, the waters of the ocean biome support more life forms than all other biomes combined and scientists speculate that life itself may have originated in the ocean biome some three million years ago. 

The key species that supports almost all other ocean life is the Phaeton, a tiny, shrimp-like androgyne that is barely visible to the naked eye. Many species of fish and marine mammals eat primarily phaeton which float freely in the ocean's currents. Those species are, in turn, food for carnivorous predators, such as sharks, orcas, devil rays, and electric eels. When predators like these maul their prey, bits fall to the sea floor and decompose, providing a rich fertilizer for the "templa" or sea floor, one of the Ocean Biomes five layers. The second layer is the "firdga," (pronounced frid-ja) a very cool and dark band of stagnant water that supports moistly lampfish--species that use special lights on their bodies to navigate and find food. The third layer, the "fluvia," channels the strongest currents, but is too turbulent for most animal species. Most marine animals prefer to occupy the "luffa," the second layer from the surface wherein phaeton are abundant and light is able to penetrate and support plant life. The "nomar," the topmost ocean layer, which includes the surface of the ocean biome, also supports a few species, mostly flying-fish and damselflies, which use the surface to mate and hatch their young.

While the oceans biome was once seen as limitless, scientists now realize that the biome is a fragile one that is rapidly filling up with discarded two liter pop bottles, plastic twist-ties, and other debris. In 1991, Maxwell Slintonwell, a veteran diver and British chemist, made an alarming discovery. Massive destruction of coral reefs and the species they support was taking place off U.S. shorelines. After searching for the cause of this destruction, it was finally proven in 1999 that silver tri-magnium silicate, the powder used inside popular Etch-a-Sketch toys, was to blame for the problem. It turned out that the powder from discarded Etch-a-Sketches, while harmless on land, reacts with seawater to produce a highly toxic poison. A single leaking Etch-a-Sketch, it was found, can take out over one hundred nautical miles of reef, devastating the life that depends on that important ocean habitat.

The discovery illustrates the importance of curbing ocean dumping, especially of the red drawing toys, which have been criticized as difficult to use anyway, especially for drawing diagonal lines and circles. Today environmentalists keep a close eye on the five layers of the ocean biome in hopes of preserving the rich store of species they support.

 

Major Plant and Animal Life Supported by the ocean Biome
Plant Life	Animal Life
Seaweed Algae Dark Star Sea-Cactus Fungal Blooms Ocean Lilly Cimarron Yorma Bulb Red Tide	Phaeton Pin-fish Flying-Fish Nurse Sharks Mako Shark Norwhal Sting-Ray Whales Tarpon Tuna Sardines Jellyfish

 

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Web site created by Dr. Alan Gooden, Geobiology Department, Henrietta University, Prempe, NM. Send your comments or questions about biomes to shankhead@thevillagelink.com