Extreme Environments Reports

An environment is what an average person and animal can live in, like dogs, cats, frogs, farm life. These areas are usually covered in air we can breathe in and water that covers most of the land we inhabit, with plants around as well with much more. This helps is as people or plant lives operate with the adaptations we are given to be able to survive in our environments, an environment where the environmental. An extreme environment are conditions that are outside of a normal range for any humans, plants. These environments are almost impossible for any normal human to be able to live in. The differences in the environments are that average humans, plants and animals won't be able to function when put into an environment that their adaptations aren't usually for whereas other animals would usually survive in. The deep sea is said to be known as the much more deeper parts in the ocean, it's a completely different place with many different forms of life we have never heard of. The deep sea environment occurs in a lot of different parts of the ocean and sea floor, the deep sea covers 71% of the surface of the earth and 90% of it is considered deep sea zone, it also reaches depths of 198m to 11033 m which is the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. These zones are then divided further into deep ocean zones, each zone has is different from each other zone with completely different sea life but most animals below the twilight zone have no light at all which means there are no plants and most of the animals that live down there eyes or are blind.Conditions of the Deep Ocean ZoneThe deep ocean zone is known for not having any light sources at all, deep sea investigators define the deep ocean zone as an area where photosynthesis can't function at all. This is because the ocean is so deep the light can't reach all the way down which means anything below 200m is said to be the deep underwater zone. The oceans characteristics can be shown as biotic factors and abiotic factors. The Hadal Zone also known as the Hadalpelagic Zone named after one of the Greek Kingdoms of the underworld Hades. The Hadal Zone is the layer of the deep sea that is below 6000 meters. This is the lowest part of the ocean on the planet because of how low it is the pressure is enormous, making it the least discovered place in the entire world, people have gone to the moon more than the Mariana Trenches (approx 11,021 meters). Abiotic factors are the factors of the each deep sea zone, these are temperature, light, pressure and oxygen.Abiotic FactorsTemperatureThe deep sea is best known for its extremely cold waters, these temperatures are similar to a zone like the abyssopelagic zone which is above it. The temperature of the Hadal zone is 1.0-2.5 degrees celsius. But the Hadal zone has adiabatic heating which increases below 4000 m. But the temperature is always a few degrees above freezing which means its very cold in this zone so the animals that live here are use to these types of cold.LightThere is not light below the midnight zone, it's so deep the sunlight cannot travel to the bottom of the ocean, because of there being no light in these zones most of the animals have no eyes or are blind. But most of these animals are very reliant on their own lights to be able to see around or bring in their pray with their chemical reaction of bioluminescence which give off lights in the dark. Bioluminescence is a chemical reaction which gives off light scientists believe that 90% of species in the deep ocean are able to give off this light. Most of the animals are either transparent, black or red, but red and black look the same when animals are hiding.PressureThe pressure in the Hadal zones pressure is so intense that its became one of the world's least investigated places in humanity, because of the pressure in this zone it would be said the be an extreme environment, the pressure in this zone would crush any human those depths, The pressure in this zone is eight tons per square inch. But in this zone for every 100 meters you go the pressure increases by an atmosphere. Animals ha ve adapted to this pressure by having no air spacesOxygenThe Hadal Zone is the deepest part of the ocean so this means in this layer the high pressures creatures can survive with little to no oxygen in these layers, also there is no sunlight that is able to travel down there which means there is no plant life in these zones as in some other zones there are plants that can give off types of oxygen plants like phytoplankton is needed for photosynthesis which is requires sun to be able to give off any oxygen into the water. but as said before the Hadal zone doesn't have any sunlight so this isn't possible.Biotic FactorsPlantsThe Hadal zone zone extends from 6000 meters to 11000 meters below the surface making it the deepest zone in the ocean, because of these depths the sunlight cannot travel this low making it impossible for plant life to be able to exist at all this is because photosynthesis is a huge part of plant life and the sun's rays are what allows photosynthesis be able to hap pen. So this makes plants not able to live in this zone so hardly anything is able to call this zone home.AnimalsDue to the ocean zone being so deep in the ocean not many animals have been able to be discovered from the lack of it being explored, there could be a whole much more lot of animals that haven't been discovered yet but these are some animals that live in this zone like the Sea cucumber, the Rat tail fish who has a good sense of smell to be able to find its food, the liparid fish who's usually found in shallow levels but scientists have found them all the way down in the hadal zone, decapods that are pretty similar to shrimps but these eat amphipods, these animals also scavenge for food. But there isn't many animals in this zone due to how deep it is and the immense pressures.BacteriaThe bacteria found in this zone is usually located in the Hadal zones hydrothermal vents, a relatively new bacteria has been discovered in this zone called Pyrococcus CH1, this is an archaebac teria that is located around the thermal vents that reach up to 80 to 105 degrees celsius. Because of how deep the Hadal Zone is, it's rather hard for anything to live down there so no plants live down there not many animals and not much bacteria live down there.The Sea CucumberThe sea cucumber is an animal that lives in the Hadal Zone right on the ocean floor these animals live at depths of 20,000 meters deep. There are many types of sea cucumbers these animals can inhabit the warm waters to the cold deep sea trenches. The Sea cucumber is a invertebrate animal this means the animal doesn't have a backbone. The animal has a typical life span of 5-10 years of life. The sea cucumber has a lot of adaptations in order to be able to survive in the Hadal Zone, the sea cucumber has structural adaptations with its body, they move their circular muscles to control their movements when moving around the ocean floor, they also have coelomic fluid that moves around their body cavity or coelom, another structural adaptation is that their feathery shapes can help them catch food. These animals breathe through respiratory trees that are organs that makes water be moved around when drawn in by the opening of the sea cucumber. When Sea cucumbers are feeling attacked they will shoot their intestines out at whatever they are feeling threatened by, their body is their very own defense mechanism, they contract their muscles and some internal organs. They will not die doing this as whatever is missing will quickly regenerate whatever is missing. Scientists are researching how their bodies are capable of doing this like the axolotl. Some behavioral adaptations of the sea cucumber is that they will shed their skin organs to hide or confuse predators or who are attacking them leaving them a little snack while they have a chance to escape, sea cucumbers will also put their tentacles inside of themselves to protect themself. The sea cucumber in able to live in this zone as it is an invertebrate animal this means that it has no backbone it also has no bones in general so it is able to live in these enormous amounts of pressure without its bones being crushed these animals have tube feet which allow it to be able to move around the bottom floor of the ocean. This is how to sea cucumber is able to live in the deepest part of the ocean. It's adaptations work together as it makes poison inside of them to then be released when throwing its intestines at the predator tries to attack this can kill anything that tries to attack them. These defenses only happen when a threat is taking place outside the surface of the sea cucumbers skin. These adaptations all help the animal able to survive down in the Hadal zone but these also help it be able to reproduce, hunt/gather food, and move around. The sea cucumber has the option the either sexually reproduce or asexually reproduce, but sexual reproduction is what is commonly used more, the adaptations help the body in order to release eggs and sperm in to the ocean, this occurs when they meet by shooting that into the water, the eggs and sperm then form together making eggs that will hatch later on. This method of reproduction is very successful rather than asexually reproducing. Gathering and hunting food, the sea cucumber will use its feet all over its body to be able to move around the ocean floor, they will scavenge the floor for small food items, waste particles are what makes up most of their diet, they ingest their food through their mouth which are on their feet. The sea cucumber has tiny tube like legs all over its body to be able to move around the ocean floor, the sea cucumber moves relatively slow around the ocean floor, they can swim a little bit with their flexible bodies. This is possible as they don't have a backbone. They also have no eyes use their bodies to be able to help them get around.ConclusionIn conclusion, The Hadal zone is very deep, I found out that not many animals live in this zone due to how deep this ocean zone is, the animals that live in this zone either have no eyes or are blind, most animals that live in this zone are also invertebrate animals. The Hadal zone is an extreme environment so we will never be able to go there. I found it interesting how we have explored the moon more than we have the Hadal Zone. This is because of how intense the pressure is in this zone, they say the pressure feels like 48 blue whales crushing you from every angle which is interesting. But overall I think this ocean zone is very interesting and all the animals that live there look very different from what we are use to seeing as ocean creatures, but the hadal zone is very interesting.