[...]... around the vent In the deepest parts of the ocean, there are openings, called vents, in the ocean floor Boiling water constantly spews out of these hydrothermal vents from deep underground Thousands of species of microbes live around these openings They These tubeworms at a hydrothermal vent get nutrients from bacteria that live in their tubes 10 Micro-Fact Scientists believe that the microbes in hydrothermal... are thermophiles Creatures that tolerate very salty water are halophiles So as you can imagine, the ocean depths are full of extremophiles! get their energy from the minerals in the boiling water gushing from the vents They live on the surface of the vents or on larger creatures that also flourish in this extreme environment Archaea Many of the microbes that live in the thermal vents are archaea These... things If there is too much carbon in the air, Earth gets too warm But oceans remove a lot of carbon dioxide from the air by dissolving it in their waters Phytoplankton help because they take in carbon dioxide from the water during photosynthesis This allows the oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide from the air And because they only need the carbon, phytoplankton release the oxygen They provide the world... amphipod that lives in the middle and upper areas of the ocean It makes its home inside another tiny animal called a salp The Phronima will kill the salp, hollow out its body, and move in! 21 Micromollusks Mollusks in the ocean include everything from the giant squid and octopus to the cowrie and abalone, whose beautiful shells you might find on a beach On land, mollusks include the snails in your backyard...Life in the Deep In some parts, the ocean is more than 30,000 feet deep Not many organisms can live at those depths There is little or no sunlight So without the Sun’s energy, how can there be life? Hydrothermal vents This photo shows a hydrothermal vent deep in the ocean The cloud comes from the hot water gushing out The water is full of minerals that provide nourishment for the microorganisms living... strands, in which long chains cyanobacteria because of them are joined together its cells form long strands You can see the individual These cyanobacteria are called cells that make up trichomes Others, known as the strands in coccoids, live together in a this photo group inside a blob of jelly 12 Bubbles of oxygen Whether they are in chains or blobs, cyanobacteria often form mats over areas of the ocean. .. other animals Others live in the sand on the ocean floor Yet others create their own houses and float around Copepods Copepods are usually 1 or 2 millimeters in length Some species live on the ocean floor Others float on or near the surface as zooplankton— 20 in fact there are usually more copepods than any other zooplankton Amphipods Amphipods, like copepods, may live at the top or bottom of the ocean. .. like bacteria, they have one simple cell, and they are very tiny Most archaea are only 1 to 15 micrometers in size 11 Cyanobacteria As we learned, most bacteria absorb their food from other living things But there is an important type of bacteria in the ocean that is different Using photosynthesis Like other bacteria, cyanobacteria do not have a nucleus in their single cell But unlike other bacteria,... beach in Hawaii contains micromollusk shells along with fragments of larger shells Gastropods The mollusks that live in seashells are called gastropods Inside their beautiful shells, gastropods have soft bodies They make their shells with minerals in the water that they process in their bodies and release as a liquid through their skin The liquid hardens around them to form a shell 23 Micro-Fact The. .. often cover the whole body They are used for swimming and for waving food toward the ciliate Some ciliates are not free-swimming Instead they attach themselves to algae or a rock Vorticella look like little bells at the end of stalks attached to a surface The bell shape is actually a tiny home, called a lorica, that keeps the creature safe inside The stalks can contract like springs, drawing the Vorticella . 30 Explore These Web Sites 31 Index 32 Some words are bold the first time they appear in the text. These words are explained in the glossary at the back of this book. 4 Invisible Oceans The oceans. living around the vent. get their energy from the minerals in the boiling water gushing from the vents. They live on the surface of the vents or on larger creatures that also flourish in. life-forms in the ocean. Micro-Fact Near the surface of the ocean, every drop of ocean water contains thousands of plankton. 6 The Ocean Web To understand the microscopic world of the ocean,