M3.6 Hadal trenches and troughs

M3. Deep sea floors biome

M3

Profile summary

Full profile at https://global-ecosystems.org/explore/groups/M3.6

Brief description

The deepest ocean trenches, up to 11 km beneath the surface, are the least explored marine ecosystems. They are also one of the most extreme, with no sunlight, low temperatures, nutrient scarcity and hydrostatic pressures of 600 to 1100 atmospheres, extending beyond the limits to vertebrate life. The major sources of nutrients and carbon are fallout from upper layers, drifts of fine sediment and landslides. Most organisms are scavengers and detrivores, like the supergiant amphipod, with abundance of predatory fish and crustaceans diminishing with depth.

Key features

Deepest ocean systems, poorly explored, mostly of fine nutrient-poor sediment dominated by scavangers and detritivors.

Overview of distribution

Seafloor between 6000 and 11 000 m.

Map description

Major occurrences of Hadal trenches and troughs was based on the ‘hadal’ and ‘trenches’ geomorphic units of Harris et al. (2014b). Occurrences were converted to 30 arc second spatial resolution..

Map code and version: M3.6.web.orig v1.0. DOI

Version history

Profile versions

  • v2.1 (2022-04-06): E Ramirez-Llodra; AA Rowden; AJ Jamieson; IG Priede; DA Keith.1
  • v2.01 (NA): NA.
  • v2.0 (2020-05-28): E Ramirez-Llodra; AA Rowden; AJ Jamieson; IG Priede; DA Keith.
  • v1.0 (2020-01-20): E Ramirez-Llodra; AA Rowden; AJ Jamieson; DA Keith.

Available maps

Read more details about the current map versions here.

  • Indicative Map (code: M3.6.IM.orig, version v1.0)
  • Web navigation (code: M3.6.web.orig, version v1.0)

Read more details about older or alternative versions of maps for this functional group.

  • Web navigation: in preparation (code: M3.6.WM.nwx, version v1.0)

References

Main references

References used in the different versions of the profiles.

  • Jamieson A, Fujii T, Mayor DJ, Solan M, Priede IG (2010) Hadal trenches: the ecology of the deepest places on Earth Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 190-197 DOI:10.1016/j.tree.2009.09.009
  • Stewart HA, Jamieson AJ (2018) Habitat heterogeneity of hadal trenches: considerations and implications for future studies Progress in Oceanography 161: 47-65 DOI:10.1016/j.pocean.2018.01.007

Map references

References used in the different versions of the maps (current and discarded).

  • Harris PT, Macmillan-Lawler M, Rupp J, Baker EK (2014) Geomorphology of the oceans. Marine Geology 352: 4-24. 10.1016/j.margeo.2014.01.011

Footnotes

  1. This is the current version available at official site.↩︎