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BENGAL (project)
BENGAL was the acronym of the research project ''High-resolution temporal and spatial study of the BENthic biology and Geochemistry of a north-eastern Atlantic abyssal Locality''. The project was funded through the EC MAST III program from 1996 to 1998 (EC contract MAS-3 950018). The project was a three-year multidisciplinary study of the abyssal benthic boundary layer in the northeast Atlantic. The aim of BENGAL was to determine how the seabed community and the geochemistry of the sediments change seasonally in response to a highly seasonal input of organic matter from the overlying water column. It did this by organising an intensive sampling programme on 14 research cruises over a two-year period and using a range of observational techniques including time-series sediment traps, marine snow cameras, benthic lander systems, long-term moorings and time-lapse photography Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abyssal
The abyssal zone or abyssopelagic zone is a layer of the pelagic zone of the ocean. "Abyss" derives from the Greek word , meaning bottomless. At depths of , this zone remains in perpetual darkness. It covers 83% of the total area of the ocean and 60% of Earth's surface. The abyssal zone has temperatures around through the large majority of its mass. Due to there being no light, there are no plants producing oxygen, which instead primarily comes from ice that had melted long ago from the polar regions. The water along the seafloor of this zone is actually devoid of oxygen, resulting in a death trap for organisms unable to quickly return to the oxygen-enriched water above. This region also contains a much higher concentration of nutrient salts, like nitrogen, phosphorus, and silica, due to the large amount of dead organic material that drifts down from the above ocean zones and decomposes. The water pressure can reach up to 76 megapascal. The area below the abyssal zone is the spa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "the depths." Organisms living in this zone are called benthos and include microorganisms (e.g., bacteria and fungi) as well as larger invertebrates, such as crustaceans and polychaetes. Organisms here generally live in close relationship with the substrate and many are permanently attached to the bottom. The benthic boundary layer, which includes the bottom layer of water and the uppermost layer of sediment directly influenced by the overlying water, is an integral part of the benthic zone, as it greatly influences the biological activity that takes place there. Examples of contact soil layers include sand bottoms, rocky outcrops, coral, and bay mud. Description Oceans The benthic region of the ocean begins at the shore line (intertidal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe and Asia from the "New World" of the Americas in the European perception of the World. The Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Europe and Africa to the east, and North and South America to the west. As one component of the interconnected World Ocean, it is connected in the north to the Arctic Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean in the southwest, the Indian Ocean in the southeast, and the Southern Ocean in the south (other definitions describe the Atlantic as extending southward to Antarctica). The Atlantic Ocean is divided in two parts, by the Equatorial Counter Current, with the North(ern) Atlantic Ocean and the South(ern) Atlantic Ocean split at about 8°N. Scientific explorations of the Atlanti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seabed
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of the ocean is very deep, where the seabed is known as the abyssal plain. Seafloor spreading creates mid-ocean ridges along the center line of major ocean basins, where the seabed is slightly shallower than the surrounding abyssal plain. From the abyssal plain, the seabed slopes upward toward the continents and becomes, in order from deep to shallow, the continental rise, slope, and shelf. The depth within the seabed itself, such as the depth down through a sediment core, is known as the “depth below seafloor.” The ecological environment of the seabed and the deepest waters are collectively known, as a habitat for creatures, as the “benthos.” Most of the seabed throughout the world's oceans is covered in layers of marine sediments. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geochemistry
Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the entire Solar System, and has made important contributions to the understanding of a number of processes including mantle convection, the formation of planets and the origins of granite and basalt. It is an integrated field of chemistry and geology. History The term ''geochemistry'' was first used by the Swiss-German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838: "a comparative geochemistry ought to be launched, before geognosy can become geology, and before the mystery of the genesis of our planets and their inorganic matter may be revealed." However, for the rest of the century the more common term was "chemical geology", and there was little contact between geologists and chemists. Geochemistry emerged as a separate discipline after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Organic Matter
Organic matter, organic material, or natural organic matter refers to the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come from the feces and remains of organisms such as plants and animals. Organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that do not involve life. Basic structures are created from cellulose, tannin, cutin, and lignin, along with other various proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Organic matter is very important in the movement of nutrients in the environment and plays a role in water retention on the surface of the planet. Formation Living organisms are composed of organic compounds. In life, they secrete or excrete organic material into their environment, shed body parts such as leaves and roots and after organisms die, their bodies are broken down by bacterial and fungal action. Larger molecules of organic matter can be formed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time-lapse Photography
Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ''lapsing''. For example, an image of a scene may be captured at 1 frame per second but then played back at 30 frames per second; the result is an apparent ''30 times'' speed increase. Similarly, film can also be played at a much lower rate than at which it was captured, which slows down an otherwise fast action, as in slow motion or high-speed photography. Processes that would normally appear subtle and slow to the human eye, such as the motion of the sun and stars in the sky or the growth of a plant, become very pronounced. Time-lapse is the extreme version of the cinematography technique of ''undercranking''. Stop motion animation is a comparable technique; a subject that does not actually move, such as a puppet, can repeatedly be move ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PANGAEA (data Library)
PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science is a digital data library and a data publisher for earth system science. Data can be georeferenced in time (date/time or geological age) and space (latitude, longitude, depth/height). Scientific data are archived with related metainformation in a relational database (Sybase) through an editorial system. Data are in Open Access and are distributed through web services in standard formats on the Internet through various search engines and portals. Data set descriptions (metadata) are conform to the ISO 19115 standard and are served in various further formats (e.g. Directory Interchange Format, Dublin Core). They include a bibliographic citation and are persistently identified using Digital Object Identifiers (DOI). Identifier provision and long-term availability of data sets via library catalogs is ensured through a cooperation with the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB). Retrieval of data sets is pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
