In the deep ocean, marine snow is a continuous shower of mostly organic detritus falling from the upper layers of the water column. It is a significant means of exporting energy from the light-rich photic zone to the aphotic zone below, which is referred to as the biological pump.

Marine snow is a shower of organic material falling from upper waters to the deep ocean. This continuous rain of marine snow provides food for many deep-sea creatures. Many animals in the dark parts of the ocean filter marine snow from the water or scavenge it from the seabed.

Marine snow is mostly biological debris that originates from the top layers of the ocean and drifts to the seafloor, providing a primary source of energy for animals in the deep ocean. Video Player is loading. This is a modal window.

Our oceans do see ‘snow,’ but it is a very different beast underwater than the snow we see on land. Scientists have learned more about the travels of marine snow by using sediment traps on the ocean floor. Data from these traps have shown that 815 million tons of carbon reaches the ocean floor every year.

Professor Yager says, “marine snow is like falling leaves in the forest. It carries food (produced by photosynthesis in the well-lit surface ocean) to the darker deep ocean. It provides important food to the animals and microbes living in what we call “the twilight zone” (middle layers).

Sinking velocities of marine snow, in contrast, are >100 m day−1 (Alldredge and Gotschalk, 1989; Shanks and Trent, 1980) (see Section 8.4.2.3. 1), and salp fecal pellets, for example, may sink more than 1000 m day−1.

But ocean water appears bluer the farther you travel down the water column. The water molecules absorb infrared, red and ultraviolet light first, and then yellow, green and violet. Blue light is absorbed the least, giving it the greatest ocean penetration depth, according to NASA.

The surface layers of the ocean gener- ally obtain oxygen from diffusion and brisk circulation. This water sinks to the seafloor, supplying oxygen to deep-sea life.

Oxygen is not given off in this experiment. That’s because the oxygen atoms from the water combine in the liquid with the salt to form hydroxyl ions. Salt’s chemical formula is NaCl – sodium chloride. The chorine gas is from the chloride in the salt.

It can do zero to 62 mph in an astonishing 2.8 seconds and is being heralded as a new player in the future fuels car market, but just how good is the QUANT e-Sportlimousine? Using the same principles as a hydrogen fuel cell, the liquid used for storing energy is, astonishingly, saltwater. …

Saltwater holds less oxygen than freshwater, so oceanic DO concentrations tend to be lower than those of freshwater. In the ocean, surface water mean annual DO concentrations range from 9 mg/L near the poles down to 4 mg/L near the equator with lower DO levels at further depths.

In cold water, the H20 molecules are closer together. As temperature of water decreases, the solubility of oxygen in water increases because of the intermolecular forces occurring between water and oxygen.

Cold, salty water is dense and sinks to the bottom of the ocean while warm water is less dense and remains on the surface. Water gets colder with depth because cold, salty ocean water sinks to the bottom of the ocean basins below the less dense warmer water near the surface.

Sea ice also plays a fundamental role in polar ecosystems. When the ice melts in the summer, it releases nutrients into the water, stimulating the growth of phytoplankton, the center of the marine food web. As the ice melts, it exposes ocean water to sunlight, spurring photosynthesis in phytoplankton.

The Arctic Ocean