Ocean sediments is formed from any kind of material that is harden in the bottom of the ocean. Some of them is made of dead organic material. And, some of them made of inorganic material that contains lots of mineral. Maybe you will only see the sediments as a part of the ocean since it looks like a rock more or less. But somehow, it actually has some importance of ocean sediments. Its existence somehow distributing some benefits towards our life.
Actually, every single components in the earth can reveal something that we do not know before. By studying it further we can actually see the importance of each components. And in this article I would like to share you with about these importance so by then you can understand why we have to protect the environment surround us.
1. Nutrient source
When we are talking about the sediment in the ocean there are some of the sediment will come or made from the death living beings such as fish or plants. Somehow, when the decomposers of the ocean decomposing these death materials it will provide nutrient from the decomposing process.
2. A medium for plants growing
Since it provides many nutrient, there will be more plants in the ocean biome that live and grow surround the sedimentation. The ocean plants live there since they also need some amount of nutrient to grow, and not only the sunlight and water that they need. Just like the land plants that will need some amount of fertilizer to support its growth.
3. Supporting marine biodiversity
Sediments provides nutrient by the help of the decomposers. And by then plants can produce food and feed all the herbivore marine animals. This food chain will be continued until the highest consumers. We can see now that if there is less sediments the balance of food chain can be disturbed and this also become the threats to aquatic biodiversity. Protecting the sediment can be done by doing some actions such as responsible mining and not throwing the garbage to the ocean.
4. Enrich the ocean ecosystem
You do know that a certain location will have some specific living beings that live in that place. The existence of sediment somehow create a new place or habitat to the marine living beings that can suit or adapt with it. This become the importance of ocean sediments where it helps to enrich the ocean ecosystem or at least providing a home for marine living beings.
5. Sulfur cycle
Since the ocean sediments can formed into a stone that is rich of mineral, we will see that there is a sulfur cycle there. In the sulfur cycle in the ocean benthic organism also plays a role. These organism is basically feed on the inorganic sulfur. One of the sulfur function that I know is that it helps to balance the ion in the benthic sediments.
6. Carbon dioxide regulation
The existence of benthic organism in the ocean sediment also has a role to maintain the amount of carbon dioxide. Some types of benthic organism such as benthic microalgae will use carbon dioxide to help them producing oxygen and food.
7. Nitrogen regulation
Benthic organism is an organism that is close to the sediment. The existence of this organism is to help the nitrogen regulation in a place where it lives in. Basically, it manages the amount of nitrogen in the ocean.
8. Building material supply
Another importance of ocean sediments in our daily life is that we are using it as a building material supply. The sediments is used as a building material supply because it is easy to use and durable. There are also some sediments that contain iron and another hard building material in the ocean.
See also: types of rocks on ocean floor
9. Water filter
Sediments can also become a natural water filter that keeps the ocean water clean. Somehow it does really work like a water filter and all the dirt will be taken care by the decomposers since in the ocean surely the dirt will most likely organic material.
10. Mineral sources
Since the sedimentation is can form from many things there is a sedimentation that can provide mineral sources for the ocean. Usually these sedimentation is made after the volcano activity where the magma went down to the ocean and turns to be a stone. These stone contains mineral and it provides mineral towards the ocean water. Mineral is also important since it can help the marine living beings to have a balance ion inside their body.
See also: Uses of Ocean Minerals
11. Oil source
Organic sedimentation that is made up from dead organism body can form into an oil. These dead body has been buried for thousand of years till it forms into oil beneath the ocean. The oil is mined and process by human and here we are now can use fossil fuels to move our vehicle.
See also: Importance of Maintaining The Ocean Ecosystems
12. Provide information for oceanographer
Oceanographer are people who is working to figure out a wide range of ocean topic. For example, they can know how old a sediment is and how it was formed in the past by analyzing the sediments. This is one of the importance of ocean sediments where it has a contribution towards education of ecosystem and our planet history.
13. Main ingredient for chalk
You must be familiar with blackboard and colorful chalk that we used to use in the past. These chalk is actually made from the sediment in the ocean. The ocean sediment contains coccoliths. Somehow, coccoliths is softer compare to any kind of sediment. Maybe this also become the reason why coccoliths is used to make chalk.
14. To predict the climate change
Do you know that climate is actually changing naturally? So basically pollution is not causing the changes but make it faster. Studying the ocean sediment can help human to know or predict the climate that will come by knowing the climate of the past that is affecting the making process of ocean sedimentation.
See also: Climate of the Ocean
15. Supporting the coral reef life
Since the environment close to the ocean sediment has a nitrogen supply, this can be beneficial to support the coral reef live. There is a denitrification process done by the organism in the ocean sediment that make them release the nitrogen where the nitrogen can be used by coral reef to support its life.
See also: Ocean Coral Reef
16. Oxygen supply
Another important importance of ocean sediments is to indirectly supply the oxygen. Since in the ocean sediment exist sulfur which is one of many particles eaten by the benthic micoalgae organism, it can also supply the oxygen since they are still classified as a plant. Remember that in the ocean there are two types of plants that can support the marine life by supplying oxygen and food. Those are the micro and macro plants. And benthic microalgae is classified as a micro plant.
See also: Types of Algae – Importance of Algae in Ocean
17. Knowing the ocean layer making process history
There are so many type of ocean sediment. And each of them can reveal something including on how the ocean layer is made in the past. We can know how the ocean layer is made by knowing the composition and structure of the ocean sediment. Maybe there is a changes in the core of the earth. Not only that, only from a stone you can actually learn and know how old the stone is and where it came from.
See also: Ocean Layers
These are some of the importance of ocean sediments that I can share to you. From this article you can actually see that the ocean sediment has a lot of function both for the ocean life or our lives. Hopefully, this information can be useful for both increasing your knowledge and awareness towards the deep ocean ecosystems. Thank you for the time you have given to us to read our article. We will still try to provide you many more article to come about the ocean here in the deepoceanfacts.com.