Water science news, explainers, and statistics covering freshwater, hydrology, lakes, rivers, groundwater, ice, and Earth’s connected water systems.
The continental rise is a broad, gently sloping apron of sediment at the foot of many continental slopes. It forms a transition between the steeper margin and the flatter abyssal plain. Much of its material began on land or the continental shelf before gravity flows and bottom currents carried it into deep water. A rise…
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The neritic zone is ocean water over the continental shelf, from the low-tide edge to the shelf break. The oceanic zone begins beyond that break, where water overlies the continental slope and deep ocean basins. Distance from shore is only a rough clue because shelf width varies greatly. NOAA’s discussion of the pelagic environment places…
The pelagic zone is the open water column, from the surface to water just above the bottom. The benthic zone is the seabed and the sediment or rock immediately associated with it. A fish swimming a meter above mud is pelagic at that moment; a worm burrowing through the mud belongs to the benthic habitat.…
The photic zone is the part of a body of water that receives sunlight. The aphotic zone lies below the reach of useful sunlight and remains dark apart from bioluminescence. Their boundary is governed by light, not by one universal depth, so it shifts with water clarity, season and the amount of light at the…
