It is a mixture of dead plankton, fecal material, mucus, dust and other particles that clump and sink. Most is consumed or decomposed on the way down, but a fraction reaches deep water and sediments.
Three things to know
- Origin
- Mostly surface
- Photosynthetic production supplies much of the organic material.
- Role
- Food + carbon
- Particles feed deep communities and move carbon below the surface.
- Fate
- Mostly recycled
- Microbes and animals consume much of the flux before it reaches the floor.
A slow particle storm
In submersible lights, sinking flakes resemble snow. They range from tiny fragments to aggregates centimeters across. Sticky gels help small particles combine, increasing sinking speed and creating temporary packages for microbes and grazers.
The biological pump
Phytoplankton take up carbon dioxide near the surface. When organic material sinks, it carries some carbon away from immediate exchange with the atmosphere. Respiration returns much of it to dissolved carbon at depth, while a smaller fraction is buried in sediment for longer periods.
A patchy food supply
Flux changes with blooms, seasons, currents and depth. Deep-sea animals use sinking particles directly, capture them from the water or eat organisms that do. Large events—including salp falls, wood falls and carcasses—create concentrated pulses on top of the background snow.
What people usually ask
Is marine snow frozen?
No. The name describes its appearance; the particles are organic and mineral material sinking through seawater.
Does all marine snow reach the seafloor?
No. Most is eaten, fragmented or decomposed in the water column.
Here’s where the answer came from
Open the original government science or research-institution source behind this page.