- Lack of nutrients, but because it is so big, it is able to have the most activity
- jellyfish, mola-mola, dolphins, whales, sharks, squid, mollusks, crustaceans, etc
- tiny organisms move with the water currents
- high concentration of plankton because of the sunlight penetrating into this zone. It allows for photosynthesis
- "sun lit" zone
- uppermost layer of the pelagic zone/surface - 200 m down
The concentration of nutrients throughout the whole of the ocean is going to vary from place to place. One way we can guess there is a high concentration of nutrients is to look at the concentration of phytoplankton - which tend to have chlorophyll, which colors the ocean water (more greenish). Have a look at this website & data/animation for some more information!
ReplyDeletehttp://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/GlobalMaps/view.php?d1=MY1DMM_CHLORA#