Discrete Ecosystem
A consistent group of organisms inhabits whale falls in all oceans. The mussels and vesicomyid clams from Alvin's discovery belonged to groups that harbor chemosynthetic bacteria which can draw energy from inorganic chemicals. Their only known habitats were sunken wood and hydrothermal vents. The lucinid clams' only other habitats were seeps and anoxic seafloor sediments. Similarly, a snail inhabited only anoxic sediments.
Similar ecosystems exist when other large volumes of nutrient-rich material fall to the sea floor. Sunken beds of kelp create kelp falls, and large trees can sink to create wood falls. In more recent years, shipwrecks have also provided bases for deepwater communities.
Read more about this topic: Whale Fall
Famous quotes containing the word discrete:
“We have good reason to believe that memories of early childhood do not persist in consciousness because of the absence or fragmentary character of language covering this period. Words serve as fixatives for mental images. . . . Even at the end of the second year of life when word tags exist for a number of objects in the child’s life, these words are discrete and do not yet bind together the parts of an experience or organize them in a way that can produce a coherent memory.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)