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Marine snow has a composition which includes: dead or dying animals and plants ( plankton), protists ( diatoms), fecal matter, sand, soot and other inorganic dust. The "snowflakes" (which are more like clumps or strings) are aggregates of smaller particles held together by a sugary mucus, transparent exopolymer particles (TEPs); natural polymers exuded as waste products by bacteria and phytoplankton. These aggregates grow over time and may reach several centimetres in diameter, travelling for weeks before reaching the ocean floor.
However, most organic components of marine snow are consumed by microbes, zooplankton and other filter-feeding animals within the first 1,000 metres of their journey. In this way marine snow may be considered the foundation of deep-sea mesopelagic and benthic ecosystems: As sunlight cannot reach them, deep-sea organisms rely heavily on marine snow as an energy source. The small percentage of material not consumed in shallower waters becomes incorporated into the muddy "ooze" blanketing the ocean floor, where it is further decomposed through biological activity.
Marine snow has begun to garner interest from microbiologists, owing to the microbial communities associated with it. Recent research indicates transported bacteria may exchange genes with what were previously thought to be isolated populations of bacteria inhabiting the breadth of the ocean floor. In such an immense area there may be as yet undiscovered species tolerant of high pressures and extreme cold, perhaps finding use in bioengineering and pharmacyPharmacy is the profession of compounding and dispensing medication. More recently, the term has come to include other services related to patient care including clinical practice, medication review, drug information, etc''. Some of these new roles are no.
The prevalence of marine snow changes with seasonal fluctuations in photosyntheticPhotosynthesis is a biochemical process in which plants, green algae, and some bacteria use the energy of light to combine water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and energy. It nourishes nearly all living things directly or indirectly, making it vital to li activity and ocean currents. Thus marine snow is heavier in spring, and the reproductive cycles of some deep-sea animals are synchronized to take advantage of this.
The role of marine snow in the global carbon cycleThe carbon cycle is a biogeochemical cycle. It is the process by which carbon is exchanged between the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere of some habitable body (such as the Earth). All of these parts are reservoirs of carbon. The cycle is u may lessen the greenhouse effectThe greenhouse effect is the process by which an atmosphere warms a planet. Mars, Venus and other celestial bodies with atmospheres (such as Titan) have greenhouse effects, but for simplicity the rest of this article will refer to the case of Earth. The t to some degree: Atmospheric carbon in the form of carbon dioxideCarbon dioxide is an atmospheric gas composed of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. One of the best known of chemical compounds, it is frequently called by its formula: :CO (pronunciation: "see oh two") Carbon dioxide results from the combustion of organic fixed by phytoplankton and subsequently transported to the ocean floor is thought to remain out of contact with the atmosphere for perhaps thousands of years. Projected elevations in ocean temperatures may result in further stratification of the water column, leading to a decreasing rate of deep-sea carbon storage.