Benthic zone
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The benthic zone, from Ancient Greek βένθος 'the depths of the ocean', is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water, such as a stream, river, lake, or ocean, including the sediment
Benthos (organisms that live at the ocean floor) can be contrasted with neuston (organisms that live at the ocean surface) plankton (organisms that drift with water currents) and nekton (organisms that can swim against water currents)
Photomicrograph of typical benthic animals, including (from top to bottom) amphipods, a polychaete worm, a snail, and a chironomous midge larva
Seagrass
Echinoderms
Abyssal plain
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An abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3,000 and 6,000 metres. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, a
Tubeworms and soft corals at a cold seep 3000 meters deep on the Florida Escarpment. Eelpouts, a galatheid crab, and an alvinocarid shrimp are feeding on chemosynthetic mytilid mussels.