Repeating for emphasis: (i) more organic matter leaves the euphotic zone when the
euphotic zone is more productive, and this conclusion applies to all constituents
(Wakeham & Lee 1993); (ii) decrease in flux with depth is quasi-exponential, but the
rates of decrease are smaller at depth; and (iii) food quantity amounts to <2 mol C m
ā2 dā1 in organic matter; and (iv) food quality decreases downward.
Deadfalls and Waterlogged Wood
(^) The exact quantitative significance of large animal carcasses and waterlogged wood
(sticks, logs, coconuts) can only be very crudely approximated. When anchored baits
are observed by time-lapse cameras (Fig. 13.1), they are attacked quickly by
grenadiers, hagfish, deep-sea sharks, amphipods, and crabs and reduced to skeletons
in hours to days. Skeletons of test porpoises are broken up and dispersed in a matter
of months (Glover et al. 2008). Whale skeletons, however, retain some connections