Secrets of the Ocean.
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- Category: Science
- Date Submitted: 11/17/2010 03:37 AM
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Secrets of the Ocean.
As you may know, about one thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Oceans are the largest eco-systems existing on earth. Life exists in various forms in the oceans. Dead remains of plants and animals, food scraps and droppings falling into the oceans make them rich in nutrients. The ocean bed is not plain. It has huge mountains, trenches, ridges and volcanoes. This makes the oceans comprise many different habitats. Despite the oceans containing millions of living creatures, they do not contain a large variety of species. In fact just 20 percent of the species living on earth, live in the oceans!
Classes of organisms found in marine ecosystems include brown algae, dinoflagellates, corals, cephalopods, echinoderms, and sharks.
The ocean is a great recycler. It takes sewage and recycles it into nutrients, it scrubs toxins out of the water and it produces food and carbon dioxide into food and oxygen. But in order to provide these services, the ocean needs all its working parts-the millions of plant and animal species that inhabit the sea.
However the world’s oceans are in a precarious state, hammered by extensive coastal pollution, climate change, over fishing and the enormously wasteful practice of deep sea trawling, in which heavily weighted nets dragged along the sea floor scoop up everything in their 100-metre wide paths, including vast amounts of ‘unwanted’ sea creatures, THE SO CALLED BYCATCH.
Studies have revealed that protection of areas of the ocean helped restore bio-diversity and in turn increased productivity four-fold.
As you may know, about one thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Oceans are the largest eco-systems existing on earth. Life exists in various forms in the oceans. Dead remains of plants and animals, food scraps and droppings falling into the oceans make them rich in nutrients. The ocean bed is not plain. It has huge mountains, trenches, ridges and volcanoes. This makes the oceans comprise many different habitats. Despite the oceans containing millions of living creatures, they do not contain a large variety of species. In fact just 20 percent of the species living on earth, live in the oceans!
Classes of organisms found in marine ecosystems include brown algae, dinoflagellates, corals, cephalopods, echinoderms, and sharks.
The ocean is a great recycler. It takes sewage and recycles it into nutrients, it scrubs toxins out of the water and it produces food and carbon dioxide into food and oxygen. But in order to provide these services, the ocean needs all its working parts-the millions of plant and animal species that inhabit the sea.
However the world’s oceans are in a precarious state, hammered by extensive coastal pollution, climate change, over fishing and the enormously wasteful practice of deep sea trawling, in which heavily weighted nets dragged along the sea floor scoop up everything in their 100-metre wide paths, including vast amounts of ‘unwanted’ sea creatures, THE SO CALLED BYCATCH.
Studies have revealed that protection of areas of the ocean helped restore bio-diversity and in turn increased productivity four-fold.