Open+Ocean+Home

**Welcome to Lauren V. and Lily A's Open Ocean homepage! Dive deep and explore into the wonders of the the biome that covers 70% of the Earth's surface.**

**__Location__** The open ocean biome is located throughout the world in the 5 oceans. The Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the five oceans. It is 60,061,000 square miles. It's depth is also very large and is about 10,924 meters deep. This ocean is located west of North and South America and south of Asia and Australia. The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the oceanic divisions. The area of this ocean averages about 29,638,000 square miles, while the depth is about 8,605 meters deep. It is located in between the Americas, Europe and Africa. The Indian ocean is the third largest ocean of the world and is 26,469,000 square miles. The depth of this oceanic division is 7,258 meters deep. This ocean is found in between Africa and Australia. Fourthly, is the Southern Ocean where the area of this ocean is 7,848,00 square miles. The depth is around 7,235 meters deep. You can find this oceanic division around the north shore of Antarctica. Lastly, is the smallest and shallowest of all the oceans, the Arctic Ocean. The area of this ocean is 5,427,000 square miles, while the depth is 4,665 meters deep. This small ocean can be located just below the North Pole. These five oceans contain the largest marine biome, the Open Ocean.

South

__**Depth**__ The ocean doesn't have seasons, but it does have depth. The depth of the ocean is how deep the ocean is in different parts of the ocean (see the diagram above). The deepest parts of the ocean are usually far from the ocean shore. The deeper the ocean is, the colder it is. There are also many different layers of the ocean:



The Epipelagic Zone- (also known as the Sunlight zone) The Epipelagic Zone gets its name from the sunlight zone because it receives the most light out of all of the zones. With light comes heat so the layer is also the hottest of them all. This layer extends down 200 meters from the surface of the ocean.

The Mesopelagic Zone- (also known as the Twilight zone or the midwater zone) This layer extends from 200 meters to 1000 meters. There are also many bizzare fish that live in this particular zone. The light that this zone receives is very little so that is why it is called the twilght zone.

The Bathypelagic Zone- (also known as the Midnight zone or the dark zone) In this zone there are many different types of creatures that live in this zone. The only light that this zone has is from the creatures that they produce themselves. This Zone extends from 1000 meters to 4000 meters deep.

The Abyssopelagic Zone- (also known as the Abyss of the Abyssal zone) This layer extends from 4000 meters to 6000 meters. This zone gets its name from a Greek word that means "no bottom". There are very few creatures that live in this zone and this contains no light at all.

The Hadalpelagic Zone- (also known as theTrenches) This layer supports some life but not a lot because there is so much pressure, very few organisms can live there. This layer also has no light at all. The Hadalpelagic Zone extends from 6000 meters to the depests parts of the ocean.



__**Temperature**__ The temperature in the ocean varies depending on its location. The water close to the equater is usually much warmer than water farther away. The water in the polar regions is normally very cold. This is a world map that shows the temperatures of the ocean.



The layers of the ocean also have different temperatures. It is like when you enter a swimming pool and the top layer is warm but the rest of your body is very cold, this is the same for the ocean. It is because the light only hits the top layer of the water, therefore the top layer is going to be warmer than the bottom. In the bottom layers of the ocean, they are just above freezing, and that is really cold.

Other Links

Biomes Home Open Ocean Organisms Open Ocean Interactions Open Ocean Food Web Open Ocean Conservation Open Ocean Bibliography