INDEX

 Abstract

 Introduction

 Deep Sea Adapations

 Light0.

 Salinity

 Temperature

 Chemosynthesis

 Pressure

 Adaptation to hydrostatic pressure

 References
Abstract

Technological advancements in the recovery and cultivation of deep-

sea microorganisms have resulted in the isolation of novel groups of bacteria
which are adapted to high pressure. From these collections a number of new
species have been identified, including members of the genera Shewanella,
Moritella, Photobacterium and Colwellia Some of these isolates have been
the subjects of investigations into pressure effects on gene, protein and fatty
acid regulation and mechanisms of baro (piezo) adaptation or sensing.
Cytochrome bd assembly and function appears to be critical to pressure
adaptation in at least one Shewanella species, and the ToxR/S proteins are
required for pressure-responsive regulation in a Photobacterium str
Deep Sea Adapations

Deep sea is characterized by a set of environmental conditions,

which in turn determine the adaptations of deep-sea forms.

Of all the oceanic zones, light penetrates only into the euphotic zone; the

remaining zones are aphotic or devoid of light (bathyal, abyssal and hadal

zones).

The term hadal zone is used to designate the perpetually cold and dark

supreme depths of the ocean.

It is characterized by high pressure, low temperature, absence of light,

calmness of water, absence of phytoplankton and other producers, scarcity of

food and resulting competition and soft bottom.

Apart from containing bacteria and perhaps fungi, the community of

aphotic zones is characteristically animal. Because of lack of cues like light

and temperature change, it was once thought that there was no seasonality in
the deep sea, but this is not so. The amount of detritus coming into deeper

waters depends on seasonal production cycles at the surface. Due to extreme

pressure the bodies i deep-sea fish and other animals are very much

compressed. Some bathypelagic fishes are economy’ designs showing

reduction of bony skeletons except for their jaws and contain watery muscles.

In some of them e.g., angler fish (Melanocetus) and gulper eel

(Eurypharynx) the water content is very high, about 95%. Even without gas-

filled swim bladders, they are near neutral buoyancy. Their hearts are very

small, they have very little red muscle and low haematocrit values.

Some deep-sea fishes exhibit greatly enlarged eyes or the so-called

telescopic eyes, which are highly effective in visioning lights of very low

intensity. In some deep-sea fishes the retina is composed of a number of tiers

of rods, presumably arranged to absorb all the limited light that enters the eye

(Nicol, 1989). In some other deep-sea fishes, eyes are very small as they are

of little apparent use, and still others are without eyes.

ADVERTISEMENTS:
 Many deep-sea animals produce their own light by means of luminous

organs, e.g., lantern fish. In anglerfish, Linophryne (Fig 2.4), the light is used

as a bait to attract prey. Besides attracting and seeing the prey, luminescent

display may also serve for species and sex recognition. Another interesting

adaptation of deep-sea fish is the enormous mouth enabling them to swallow

prey larger km themselves (e.g., the gulper, Eurypharynx, whale fish,

Cetomimus).

All benthic fishes lack pnm bladders and rest on the bottom, sometimes

like tripod fishes (Bathypterois spp.) on stiff elongate fin rays (Fig 2.4).

Correlated with soft substratum, many of the deep-sea animals have long

appendages, abundant spines, stalks or other means of support, as illustrated

by tripod fish, lampshells and crinoids. Perhaps these appendages are very

useful in the darkness and serve for contact reception, or compensate for the

difficulties of vision.
Deep sea

Schematic representation of pelagic and benthic zones.

The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins

to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of

transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within

the deep sea are a combination of low temperatures, darkness and high

pressure. The deep sea is considered the least explored Earth biome, with the

extreme conditions making the environment difficult to access and explore.

Organisms living within the deep sea have a variety of adaptations to

survive in these conditions. Organisms can survive in the deep sea through a

number of feeding methods including scavenging, predation and filtration,

with a number of organisms surviving by feeding on marine snow. Marine

snow is organic material that has fallen from upper waters into the deep sea.

In 1960, the bathyscaphe Trieste descended to the bottom of

the Mariana Trench near Guam, at 10,911 m (35,797 ft; 6.780 mi), the

deepest known spot in any ocean. If Mount Everest (8,848 m or 29,029 ft or

5.498 mi) were submerged there, its peak would be more than 2 km (1.2 mi)

beneath the surface. After the Trieste was retired, the Japanese remote-

operated vehicle (ROV) Kaikō was the only vessel capable of reaching this

depth until it was lost at sea in 2003. In May and June 2009, the hybrid-

ROV Nereus returned to the Challenger Deep for a series of three dives to

depths exceeding 10,900 m (35,800 ft; 6.8 mi).

Environmental characteristics

Light

Natural light does not penetrate the deep ocean, with the exception of

the upper parts of the mesopelagic. Since photosynthesis is not

possible, plants and phytoplankton cannot live in this zone, and as these are

the primary producers of almost all of earth's ecosystems, life in this area of

the ocean must depend on energy sources from elsewhere. Except for the

areas close to the hydrothermal vents, this energy comes from organic

material drifting down from the photic zone. The sinking organic material is

composed of algal particulates, detritus, and other forms of biological waste,

which is collectively referred to as marine snow.[citation needed]

Pressure

Because pressure in the ocean increases by about 1 atmosphere for

every 10 meters of depth, the amount of pressure experienced by many

marine organisms is extreme. Until recent years, the scientific community

lacked detailed information about the effects of pressure on most deep sea

organisms because the specimens encountered arrived at the surface dead or

dying and weren't observable at the pressures at which they lived. With the
advent of traps that incorporate a special pressure-maintaining chamber,

undamaged larger metazoan animals have been retrieved from the deep sea in

good condition.[citation needed]

Salinity

Salinity is remarkably constant throughout the deep sea, at about 35

parts per thousand. There are some minor differences in salinity, but none

that are ecologically significant, except in the Mediterranean and Red Seas.

Temperature

The two areas of greatest temperature gradient in the oceans are the

transition zone between the surface waters and the deep waters, the

thermocline, and the transition between the deep-sea floor and the hot water

flows at the hydrothermal vents. Thermoclines vary in thickness from a few

hundred meters to nearly a thousand meters. Below the thermocline, the

water mass of the deep ocean is cold and far more homogeneous.

Thermoclines are strongest in the tropics, where the temperature of

the epipelagic zone is usually above 20 °C. From the base of the epipelagic,

the temperature drops over several hundred meters to 5 or 6 °C at 1,000

meters. It continues to decrease to the bottom, but the rate is much slower.

The cold water stems from sinking heavy surface water in the polar regions.

At any given depth, the temperature is practically unvarying over long

periods of time, without seasonal changes and with very little interannual

variability. No other habitat on earth has such a constant temperature.

In hydrothermal vents the temperature of the water as it emerges from

the "black smoker" chimneys may be as high as 400 °C (it is kept from

boiling by the high hydrostatic pressure) while within a few meters it may be

back down to 2 to 4 °C.

Biology

Regions 3 below the epipelagic are divided into further zones,

beginning with the bat hyal zone (also considered the continental slope)

which spans from 200 to 3000 meters below sea level and is essentially

transitional, containing elements from both the shelf above and the abyss

below. Below this zone, the deep sea consists of the abyssal zone which

occurs between the ocean depths of 3000 and 6000 metres and the hadal

zone (6000 – 11,000 meters). Food consists of falling organic matter known

as 'marine snow' and carcasses derived from the productive zone above, and

is scarce both in terms of spatial and temporal distribution.

Instead of relying on gas for their buoyancy, many deep-

sea species have jelly-like flesh consisting mostly of glycosaminoglycans,

which provides them with very low density. It is also common among deep

water squid to combine the gelatinous tissue with a flotation chamber filled

with a coelomic fluid made up of the metabolic waste product ammonium

chloride, which is lighter than the surrounding water.[citation needed]

The midwater fish have special adaptations to cope with these

conditions—they are small, usually being under 25 centimetres (10 in); they

have slow metabolisms and unspecialized diets, preferring to sit and wait for

food rather than waste energy searching for it. They have elongated bodies

with weak, watery muscles and skeletal structures. They often have

extendable, hinged jaws with recurved teeth. Because of the sparse

distribution and lack of light, finding a partner with which to breed is

difficult, and many organisms are hermaphroditic.[citation needed]

Because light is so scarce, fish often have larger than normal, tubular

eyes with only rod cells. Their upward field of vision allows them to seek out
the silhouette of possible prey. Prey fish however also have adaptations to

cope with predation. These adaptations are mainly concerned with reduction

of silhouettes, a form of camouflage. The two main methods by which this is

achieved are reduction in the area of their shadow by lateral compression of

the body, and counter illumination via bioluminescence. This is achieved by

production of light from ventral photophores, which tend to produce such

light intensity to render the underside of the fish of similar appearance to the

background light. For more sensitive vision in low light, some fish have

a retroreflector behind the retina. Flashlight fish have this plus photophores,

which combination they use to detect eyeshine in other fish (see tapetum

lucidum).

Organisms in the deep sea are almost entirely reliant upon sinking

living and dead organic matter which falls at approximately 100 meters per

day. In addition, only about 1 to 3% of the production from the surface

reaches the sea bed mostly in the form of marine snow. Larger food falls,

such as whale carcasses, also occur and studies have shown that these may

happen more often than currently believed. There are many scavengers that

feed primarily or entirely upon large food falls and the distance between
whale carcasses is estimated to only be 8 kilometers. In addition, there are a

number of filter feeders that feed upon organic particles using tentacles, such

as Freyella elegans.

Marine bacteriophages play an important role in cycling nutrients in

deep sea sediments. They are extremely abundant (between 5×10 12 and

1×1013 phages per square meter) in sediments around the world.

Despite being so isolated deep sea organisms have still been harmed by

human interaction with the oceans. The London Convention aims to protect

the marine environment from dumping of wastes such as sewage

sludge and radioactive waste. A study found that at one region there had been

a decrease in deep sea coral from 2007 to 2011, with the decrease being

attributed to global warming and ocean acidification, and biodiversity

estimated as being at the lowest levels in 58 years. Ocean acidification is

particularly harmful to deep sea corals because they are made of aragonite, an

easily soluble carbonate, and because they are particularly slow growing and

will take years to recover. Deep sea trawling is also harming the biodiversity

by destroying deep sea habitats which can take years to form. Another human

activity that has altered deep sea biology is mining. One study found that at
one mining site fish populations had decreased at six months and at three

years, and that after twenty six years populations had returned to the same

levels as prior to the disturbance.

Chemosynthesis

There are a number of species that do not primarily rely upon dissolved

organic matter for their food. These species and communities are found

at hydrothermal vents at sea-floor spreading zones. One example is the

symbiotic relationship between the tube worm Riftia and chemosynthetic

bacteria. It is this chemosynthesis that supports the complex communities

that can be found around hydrothermal vents. These complex communities

are one of the few ecosystems on the planet that do not rely upon sunlight for

their supply of energy.

Adaptation to hydrostatic pressure

Deep sea fish have different adaptations in their proteins, anatomical

structures, and metabolic systems to survive in the Deep sea, where the

inhabitants have to withstand great amount of hydrostatic pressure. While

other factors like food availability and predator avoidance are important, the

deep-sea organisms must have the ability to maintain well-regulated

metabolic system in the face of high pressures. In order to adjust for the

extreme environment, these organisms have developed unique characteristics.

Proteins are affected greatly by the elevated hydrostatic pressure, as

they undergo changes in water organization during hydration and dehydration

reactions of the binding events. This is due to the fact that most enzyme-

ligand interactions form through charged or polar non-charge interactions.

Because hydrostatic pressure affects both protein folding and assembly and

enzymatic activity, the deep sea species must undergo physiological and

structural adaptations to preserve protein functionality against pressure.

Actin is a protein that is essential for different cellular functions. The α-

actin serves as a main component for muscle fiber, and it is highly conserved

across numerous different species. Some Deep-sea fish developed pressure

tolerance through the change in mechanism of their α-actin. In some species

that live in depths greater than 5000m, C.armatus and C.yaquinae have

specific substitutions on the active sites of α-Actin, which serves as the main

component of muscle fiber. These specific substitutions, Q137K and V54A

from C.armatus or I67P from C.yaquinae are predicted to have importance in

pressure tolerance. Substitution in the active sites of actin result in significant

changes in the salt bridge patterns of the protein, which allows for better

stabilization in ATP binding and sub unit arrangement, confirmed by the free

energy analysis and molecular dynamics simulation. It was found that deep

sea fish have more salt bridges in their actins compared to fish inhabiting the

upper zones of the sea.

In relations to protein substitution, specific osmolytes were found to be

abundant in deep sea fish under high hydrostatic pressure. For

certain chondrichtyans, it was found that Trimethylamine N-oxide

(TMAO) increased with depth, replacing other osmolytes and urea. Due to

the ability of TMAO being able to protect proteins from high hydrostatic

pressure destabilizing proteins, the osmolyte adjustment serves are an

important adaptation for deep sea fish to withstand high hydrostatic pressure.

Deep-sea organisms possess molecular adaptations to survive and thrive

in the deep oceans. Mariana hadal snailfish developed modification in

the Osteocalcin(burlap) gene, where premature termination of the gene was

found. Osteocalcin gene regulates bone development and tissue

mineralization, and the frameshift mutation seems to have resulted in the

open skull and cartilage-based bone formation. Due to high hydrostatic

pressure in the deep sea, closed skulls that organisms living on the surface

develop cannot withstand the enforcing stress. Similarly, common bone

developments seen in surface vertebrates cannot maintain their structural

integrity under constant high pressure.

Exploration

It has been suggested that more is known about the Moon than the

deepest parts of the ocean. This is a common misconception based on a 1953

statement by George E.R. Deacon published in the Journal of Navigation,

and largely refers to the scarce amount of seafloor bathymetry available at the

time. The similar idea that more people have stood on the moon than have

been to the deepest part of the ocean is likewise problematic.

3:58

Describing the operation and use of an autonomous lander (RV

Kaharoa) in deep-sea research; the fish seen is the abyssal

grenadier (Coryphaenoides armatus).

Still the deep-sea remains one of the least explored regions on planet

Earth. Pressures even in the mesopelagic become too great for traditional

exploration methods, demanding alternative approaches for deep-sea

research. Baited camera stations, small manned submersibles, and ROVs

(remotely operated vehicles) are three methods utilized to explore the ocean's

depths. Because of the difficulty and cost of exploring this zone, current

knowledge is limited. Pressure increases at approximately one atmosphere for

every 10 meters meaning that some areas of the deep sea can reach pressures

of above 1,000 atmospheres. This not only makes great depths very difficult

to reach without mechanical aids, but also provides a significant difficulty

when attempting to study any organisms that may live in these areas as their

cell chemistry will be adapted to such vast pressures.

 Deep sea fish – Fauna found in deep sea areas

 Deep ocean water – Cold, salty water deep below the surface of Earth's

oceans

 Submarine landslide – Landslides that transport sediment across the

continental shelf and into the deep ocean

 The Blue Planet – 2001 British nature documentary television series

o Blue Planet II – 2017 British nature documentary television series

 Nepheloid layer – layer of water in the deep ocean basin, above the ocean

floor, that contains significant amounts of suspended sediment

  Oceans portal

 Biogenous Ooze

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