<p>How does the biological productivity of the ocean vary with depth?</p>
<p>(By 'productivity', what I'm actually interested in is production of edible fish, but I suppose other measures like photosynthesis, probably match this to a first approximation?)</p>
<p>In general, my understanding is that most of the ocean has low productivity because it is kilometers deep, which means the seafloor sediment (which contains the mineral nutrients) is far from the euphotic zone (which contains the sunlight); the particularly productive areas like the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, are so because they are shallow.</p>
<p>Does that mean shallower is always better? Or is there a cutoff point of 'shallow enough'?</p>
<p>Do currents matter? Is a shallow area that receives an upwelling current from an adjacent deep area, more productive than if it were surrounded by similarly shallow areas?</p>
<p>What other factors am I not taking into account?</p>
<p>What's the depth that maximizes productivity?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-31T13:21:09.337Z
i did put " How does ocean productivity vary with depth " into google and this is hit #1 https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-biological-productivity-of-the-ocean-70631104/ what research did you do before posting your question,i am just guessing here but one of the close to 22million hits on google should provide an answer to this question.
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-03-31T17:33:36.503Z
@trondhansen You are, as you say, just guessing. I went through quite a few of those hits, and many of them provide material useful for studying the domain, but neither the one you linked, nor any of the ones I looked at, actually answers the question.
rwallace
<oceanography><water><nutrient-cycles>
How does ocean productivity vary with depth?
rwallace
# How does ocean productivity vary with depth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-03-31)

How does the biological productivity of the ocean vary with depth?

(By 'productivity', what I'm actually interested in is production of edible fish, but I suppose other measures like photosynthesis, probably match this to a first approximation?)

In general, my understanding is that most of the ocean has low productivity because it is kilometers deep, which means the seafloor sediment (which contains the mineral nutrients) is far from the euphotic zone (which contains the sunlight); the particularly productive areas like the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, are so because they are shallow.

Does that mean shallower is always better? Or is there a cutoff point of 'shallow enough'?

Do currents matter? Is a shallow area that receives an upwelling current from an adjacent deep area, more productive than if it were surrounded by similarly shallow areas?

What other factors am I not taking into account?

What's the depth that maximizes productivity?

**Tags:** oceanography, water, nutrient-cycles

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: i did put " How does ocean productivity vary with depth " into google and this is hit #1 https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/the-biological-productivity-of-the-ocean-70631104/ what research did you do before posting your question,i am just guessing here but one of the close to 22million hits on google should provide an answer to this question.  
> **username_0**: @username_1 You are, as you say, just guessing. I went through quite a few of those hits, and many of them provide material useful for studying the domain, but neither the one you linked, nor any of the ones I looked at, actually answers the question.  

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## 0 answers

