The Organic Budget 



175 



of the biomass of active bacteria. Conceiv- 

 ably, it is larger than the biomass of the 

 megafauna, as has been found true of some 

 shallow-water sediments (ZoBell, 1946c, 

 p. 96), but it could equally well be relatively 

 negligible. Lacking more precise informa- 

 tion on biomass of bacteria, it will have to 

 be ignored in the following discussion. 



The Organic Budget 



Most of the effort in general marine 

 biology during the past has been in the field 

 of taxonomy, because it was necessary first 

 of all to learn what organisms are present. 

 Knowledge of the physiology and ecology 

 of inhabitants of the more easily accessible 

 biozones of the shore lagged only slightly 

 behind taxonomic studies of these areas. 

 However, little is yet known of the ecology 



of the deeper areas of the ocean, and still 

 less is known of the physiology of the ani- 

 mals living in them. Some knowledge has 

 been gained of the distribution and abun- 

 dance of the few kinds of plants and the 

 few animals used by man. Knowledge of 

 others not directly used as food for man is 

 far less complete. Nevertheless, there may 

 be some gain in attempting to work out a 

 budget of the organic matter contributed, 

 produced, eaten, regenerated, and lost be- 

 cause such a budget can serve as a general 

 framework into which many studies of 

 biology, oceanography, and geology can be 

 fitted in order to visualize their relation- 

 ships to each other. The fact that the many 

 uncertainties in this framework becomes 

 glaringly obvious may serve to accelerate 

 efforts to better evaluate them; thus, the fol- 

 lowing should be recognized only as an 

 early attempt to form a general structure 



Figure 152. Bottom of Santa Catalina Basin (lat. 33°22.2', long. 118M7.9', 1326 meters). In the right foreground are 

 the ten arms of a comatulid crinoid, probably Florometra sp. Small polychaete worm tubes and ophiuroids litter the 

 surface. Two holothurians are present in the left center foreground. The bumpy bottom was produced by burrowing 

 activities of large worms. The bottom edge is about 2 meters wide. 



