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How do deep sea creatures breathe?

Water is made of oxygen and hydrogen so maybe there's a process in their systems that can split it? Just guessing. Though their breathing requirements are probably also very different than ours, ex they probably don't need as much to get by. Some creatures may not even require it at all. (not sure if there are any, but it could be possible)
 
Rakehellion said:
How does the oxygen get into the water? Creature breathes oxygen. Oxygen gets used up.
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oh i don't know, let's check wikipedia shall we?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gill

Gills usually consist of thin filaments of tissue, branches, or slender, tufted processes that have a highly folded surface to increase surface area. A high surface area is crucial to the gas exchange of aquatic organisms, as water contains only a small fraction of the dissolved oxygen that air does. A cubic meter of air contains about 250 grams of oxygen at STP. The concentration of oxygen in water is lower than air and it diffuses more slowly. In fresh water, the dissolved oxygen content is approximately 8 cm3/L compared to that of air which is 210 cm3/L. Water is 777 times more dense than air and is 100 times more viscous. Oxygen has a diffusion rate in air 10,000 times greater than in water. The use of sac-like lungs to remove oxygen from water would not be efficient enough to sustain life. Rather than using lungs, "[g]aseous exchange takes place across the surface of highly vascularised gills over which a one-way current of water is kept flowing by a specialised pumping mechanism. The density of the water prevents the gills from collapsing and lying on top of each other, which is what happens when a fish is taken out of water."
 
I think the OP is referring to lower amounts of dissolved oxygen at greater depths.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen_minimum_zone

The dissolved oxygen at shallower depths will be much higher than at deeper depths. For one, it's closer to our gaseous atmosphere so oxygen enters water that way. The underwater plants also undergo photosynthesis and produce oxygen, but these plants are unable to survive at greater depths due to lack of sunlight.

Basically, at a certain depth there is no oxygen production. All the oxygen that's in deep water is a result of shallower water circulating down into deeper depths.

Now, when you factor in the quantity of oxygen-using organisms, the deep deep ocean may have more dissolved oxygen than at close-to-surface depths because even though there is nothing producing oxygen at these depths other than the natural churning of water, there are also vastly fewer organisms using that oxygen. There is a middle depth though where there is, again, no oxygen production, but a greater quantity of life, so the middle ocean will have the lowest amount of dissolved oxygen.
 
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Rakehellion said:
When you're 5000 feet below sea level, where does the oxygen come from?
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What
Rakehellion said:
How does the oxygen get into the water? Creature breathes oxygen. Oxygen gets used up.
Click to expand...
The
Red Squirrel said:
Water is made of oxygen and hydrogen so maybe there's a process in their systems that can split it? Just guessing. Though their breathing requirements are probably also very different than ours, ex they probably don't need as much to get by. Some creatures may not even require it at all. (not sure if there are any, but it could be possible)
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Fuck?
 
h5374C325
 
What about sea plants, do they work the same way as land plants? That would provide oxygen. I don't know how photosentisis would work that far down though, but they would probably use a different process.
 
John Connor said:
How do you breath at 35,000 in a plane? 😉

I'll give you a clue. The air is dry for a reason.
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The air is dry to reduce oxidation. Newer composite aircraft, such as the Dreamliner, have more normal humidity levels because the fuselage is one piece of composite that won't oxidize.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Water is made of oxygen and hydrogen so maybe there's a process in their systems that can split it? Just guessing. Though their breathing requirements are probably also very different than ours, ex they probably don't need as much to get by. Some creatures may not even require it at all. (not sure if there are any, but it could be possible)
Click to expand...

John Connor said:
How do you breath at 35,000 in a plane? 😉

I'll give you a clue. The air is dry for a reason.
Click to expand...
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