Every day, billions and billions of Deep-sea marine animals, mostly zooplankton migrate up and down in the ocean all over the planet. This synchronised movement is called diel vertical migration (DVM).
- It is also a crucial player in the earth’s carbon cycle. This nightly ascent allows zooplanktons to graze on the microscopic phytoplankton while skirting the haunts of their daytime predators.
- The timing of this migration is tuned to the natural rhythms of sunrise and sunset, and the migration itself is the largest on the planet by biomass.
- DVM is also more than a survival strategy: it plays a pivotal role in sequestering carbon, a process vital for regulating the earth’s climate.
- Animals dwelling in the mesopelagic layer actively remove substantial amounts of carbon from the upper ocean as they feed on surface-dwelling plankton.
- When these organisms return to deeper waters, they carry the carbon with them. Even within the twilight zone, some migratory animals become part of the food chain, passing on the carbon they have consumed to their predators.
- The carbon-rich waste produced by the predators then sinks to the ocean floor, where it remains trapped for millennia. This natural process is an important carbon sink that helps regulate the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
