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Have you ever wondered how the circle of life operates in the ocean?
Where does food come from
and how do the organisms that live there use it?
The particles that exist in the water column
are essentially the building blocks of life
for those animals that make their home in the ocean.
These particles, both living and non-living,
can provide food to the animals that eat them,
construction materials out of which
some animals make their homes or,
they can represent homes to a vast number of micro-organisms
that live on their surfaces
Collectively, these particles are known as seston.
The Particles in the ocean are created through a combination
of physical and biological processes.
On the physical side,
many smaller particles may be created from larger ones
through the turbulence caused by the crashing of a wave
or by the mixing of water currents
as they are forced through narrow passages.
Others are produced by the slow disintegration of larger particles over time.
On the biological side,
particles are created by small plants called phytoplankton
as they capture energy from the sun
and create more and more through their reproductive acticities.
When the particles die
either naturally or by being eaten
they enter the food chain where the basic feeding,
reproductive and dying processes
produce even more particles of different sizes.
One of the most important functions of particles
is that they are the main method for transferring food energy
from one organism to another.
Whether they are microscopically small
or large enough that you could see one on the end of your finger,
there are many living things
that have adapted to utilize particles.
Most seston in the water is made up of a combination
of both organic and inorganic components.
The inorganic components are from mineral origin
and are essentially any small particles
of silt or mud that are suspended in the water column.
The organic components are from biological origin
and can be either living or dead.
Live particles may be microbes, larvae,
phytoplankton or fungi.
The dead components are the remains of other organisms
or their digestive waste.
Sometimes, many of these components
are bundled together with organic glue produced by phytoplankton
into structures known as marine snow or flocs.
Seston is used by many species in their day-to-day activities.
The many organisms that use seston
can be extremely varied and beautiful.
You may have seen many of these
while walking along the shore,
at the grocery store
or visiting an aquarium.
Some examples include:
barnacles, mussels,
scallops, corals, sea anemones,
sea squirts or tunicates,
and sea cucumbers.
Many different kinds of fish
and some of the largest animals on earth, whales
feed on relatively small particles in the ocean.
Each particle of seston can be a tiny meal.
Food energy is tied up in the organic portion of these particles;
the higher the organic content, the richer the meal.
After all there’s not much nutritional value in sand.
When any organism has an abundance of high quality food,
there are much fewer restrictions to growth and reproduction.
As a result, an abundance of rich particles
can promote high species densities
which can contribute significantly to the local ecosystem.
But you can have to much of a good thing!
When humans influence the aquatic environment
with their activities such as fishing, farming,
land inputs and energy development;
particle concentrations may increase dramatically.
If the local habitat cannot support enough organisms
to consume this large influx or organic particles,
then the local ecosystem can become destabilized and impacted.
Particulates can then accumulate and
create conditions that are physically and chemically
unattractive to many of the natural organisms
that would normally live there.
One solution to dealing with any excess food production
has already been invented by Mother Nature
with the creation of food webs
for the recycling of this energy.
Understanding how to create these situations
is the goal of ecological engineering.
Seston is one of the foundations for all life
in the marine environment
and its existence is critical to the healthy operations of ecosystems.
By understanding the role of seston
in natural food production,
we can learn how to imitate natural ecosystems
and to foster more sustainable food production
for humans