Indian Ocean description, interesting facts. Fauna of the Indian Ocean Flora and fauna

The richest source of life diversity is the ocean. Any of the five oceans that exist on our planet is a real storehouse of the organic world. Moreover, if all land animals are known to science, then some inhabitants of the depths remain still undiscovered, skillfully hiding in the depths of the ocean.

This only spurs the interest of zoologists, oceanologists and other scientists. The study of the ocean, from its physical characteristics and ending with the diversity of life in it, is in the foreground today. Consider organic world Indian Ocean as one of the richest living systems.

Characteristics of the Indian Ocean

Among other oceans, the Indian is in third place in terms of the occupied water area (after the Atlantic and Pacific). The properties of the Indian Ocean can be characterized by several main points:

1. The territory of the ocean is about 77 million km 2.
2. The organic world of the Indian Ocean is very diverse.
3. The volume of water is 283.5 million m 3.
4. The width of the ocean is about 10 thousand km 2.
5. Washes on all sides of the world Eurasia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica.
6. Bays (straits) and seas occupy 15% of the entire ocean area.
7. The largest island is Madagascar.
8. The greatest depth near the island of Java in Indonesia is more than 7 km.
9. The average general water temperature is 15-18 0 С. In each separate place of the ocean (near the borders with islands, in seas and bays), the temperature can vary markedly.

Exploration of the Indian Ocean

This water body has been known since ancient times. He was an important link in the trade in spices, fabrics, furs and other goods between the peoples of Persia, Egypt and Africa.

However, the exploration of the Indian Ocean began much later, during the time of the famous Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama (mid-15th century). It is to him that the merit of the discovery of India belongs, after which the whole ocean was named.

Before Vasco da Gama, it had many different names among the peoples of the world: the Eritrean Sea, the Black Sea, Indicon Pelagos, Bar el Hind. However, back in the 1st century, Pliny the Elder called him Oceanus Indicus, which Latin translates to "Indian Ocean".

A more modern and scientific approach to the study of the structure of the bottom, the composition of the waters, the inhabitants of the animal and plant origin only started in the 19th century. Today animal world The Indian Ocean is of great practical and scientific interest, as well as the ocean itself. Scientists from Russia, America, Germany and other countries are actively working on this issue, using the most advanced technology (underwater devices, space satellites).

Picture of the organic world

The organic world of the Indian Ocean is quite diverse. Among the representatives of flora and fauna there are such species that are very specific and rare.

In its diversity, the biomass of the ocean resembles that of the Pacific Ocean (more precisely, in its western part). This is due to the common undercurrents between these oceans.

In general, the entire organic world of the local waters can be combined into two groups according to their habitat:

1. Tropical Indian Ocean.
2. Antarctic part.

Each of them is characterized by its own climatic conditions, currents, abiotic factors. Therefore, organic diversity also differs in composition.

Diversity of life in the ocean

The tropical area of ​​this water body abounds in a variety of planktonic and benthic species of animals and plants. Algae such as unicellular Trichodesmium are considered common. Their concentration in the upper layers of the ocean is so high that the overall color of the water changes.

Also in this area, the organic world of the Indian Ocean is represented by the following types of algae:

• sargasso algae;
• turbinaria;
• caulerps;
• phytotamnia;
• chalimedes;
• mangroves.

Of the small animals, the most widespread are the beautiful representatives of plankton that glow at night: physalia, siphonophores, ctenophores, tunicates, perydenea, jellyfish.

The Antarctic region of the Indian Ocean is represented by fucus, kelp, porphyry, galidium, and huge macrocystis. And from the representatives of the animal kingdom (small), copypods, euphuazids, diatoms live here.

unusual fish

Often the animals of the Indian Ocean are rare or simply unusual in appearance. So, among the most common and numerous fish there are sharks, rays, mackerels, dolphins, tuna, notothenia.

If we talk about unusual representatives of the ichthyofauna, then it should be noted such as:

• coral fish;
• parrot fish;
• White shark;
• whale shark.

Fish of commercial importance are tuna, mackerel, dolphins and notothenia.

Diversity of animals

The fauna of the Indian Ocean has representatives of the following types, classes, families:

1. Fish.
2. Reptiles (sea snakes and giant turtles).
3. Mammals (sperm whales, seals, sei whales, elephant seals, dolphins, toothless whales).
4. Mollusks (giant octopus, octopuses, snails).
5. Sponges (lime and silicon forms);
6. Echinoderms (sea beauty, holothurians, sea ​​urchins, ophiurs).
7. Shellfish (crayfish, crabs, lobsters).
8. Hydroids (polyps).
9. Mshankovye.
10. Coral polyps (form coastal reefs).

Animals such as sea beauties have a very bright color, live at the very bottom and have a hexagonal shape with radial symmetry of the body. Thanks to them, the bottom of the ocean looks bright and picturesque.

The giant octopus is a large octopus, the length of whose tentacles extends to 1.2 m. The body, as a rule, is no more than 30 cm in length.

Lime and silicon sponges play an important role in the formation of the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Along with benthic species of algae, they form whole deposits of calcareous and silicic deposits.

The most terrible predator of these habitats is the white shark, whose size reaches 3 meters. A ruthless and very agile killer, she is practically the main thunderstorm of the Indian Ocean.

Very beautiful and interesting fish of the Indian Ocean - coral fish. They are bizarrely and brightly colored, have a flat, elongated body shape. These fish are very clever at hiding in the thickets of coral polyps, where not a single predator is able to get them.

The combined conditions of the Indian Ocean make it possible for its fauna to be so diverse and interesting as to attract those wishing to study it.

Vegetable world

The contour map of the Indian Ocean gives a general idea of ​​what it borders on. And starting from this, it is easy to imagine what the plant community of the ocean will be like.

Proximity to the Pacific Ocean contributes to the wide distribution of brown and red algae, many of which are of commercial importance. are also present in all parts of the Indian Ocean.

Thickets of giant macrocystis are considered interesting and unusual. It is believed that getting into such thickets on a ship is tantamount to death, because it is very easy to get entangled in them and it is completely impossible to get out.

The main part of the plant is made up of unicellular benthic, planktonic algae.

Commercial value of the Indian Ocean

Fishing for animals and plants in the Indian Ocean is not as fully developed as in other deep oceans and seas. Today, this ocean is the world's source of reserves, a reserve of valuable food sources. A contour map of the Indian Ocean can show the main islands and peninsulas on which fishing is most developed and mining is carried out. valuable species fish and algae:

• Sri Lanka;
• Hindustan;
• Somalia;
• Madagascar;
• Maldives;
• Seychelles;
• Arabian Peninsula.

At the same time, the animals of the Indian Ocean, for the most part, are very valuable species in terms of nutrition. However, this water body is not very popular in this sense. Its main significance for people today is access to different countries world, islands and peninsulas.

From the tropics to the ice of Antarctica

The Indian Ocean is located between four continents - Eurasia (the Asian part of the continent) in the north, Antarctica in the south, Africa in the west and east with Australia and a group of islands and archipelagos located between the Indochinese Peninsula and Australia.

Most of the Indian Ocean is located in southern hemisphere. border with Atlantic Ocean defines a conditional line from Cape Igolny (southern point of Africa) along the 20th meridian to Antarctica. The border with the Pacific Ocean runs from the Malay Peninsula (Indochina) to the northern point of Sumatra, then along the line. connecting the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Sumba, Timor and New Guinea. Between New Guinea and Australia, the border passes through the Torres Strait, south of Australia - from Cape Howe to Tasmania and along its western coast, and from Cape Yuzhny (the southernmost point of Tasmania) strictly along the meridian to Antarctica. The Indian Ocean does not border the Arctic Ocean.

You can see a complete map of the Indian Ocean.

The area occupied by the Indian Ocean - 74917 thousand square kilometers - is the third largest ocean. The coastline of the ocean is slightly indented, so there are few marginal seas on its territory. In its composition, only such seas as the Red Sea, the Persian and Bengal Bays (in fact, these are huge marginal seas), the Arabian Sea, the Andaman Sea, the Timor and Arafura Seas can be distinguished. The Red Sea is the inland sea of ​​the basin, the rest are marginal.

The central part of the Indian Ocean consists of several deep-sea basins, among which the largest are the Arabian, West Australian, African-Antarctic. These basins are separated by long underwater ridges and uplifts. deepest point Indian Ocean - 7130 m located in the Sunda Trench (along the Sunda island arc). The average depth of the ocean is 3897 m.

The bottom relief is rather monotonous, the eastern part is more even than the western one. There are many shoals and banks in the region of Australia and Oceania. The bottom soil is similar to the soil of other oceans and represents the following types: coastal sediments, organic silt (radiolar, diatom) and clay - at great depths (the so-called "red clay"). Coastal deposits are sand located in shallows to a depth of 200-300 m. Silt deposits can be green, blue (near rocky coasts), brown (volcanic areas), lighter (due to the presence of lime) in areas of coral buildings. Red clay occurs at depths greater than 4500 m. It has a red, brown, or chocolate color.

In terms of the number of islands, the Indian Ocean is inferior to all other oceans. The largest islands: Madagascar, Ceylon, Mauritius, Socotra and Sri Lanka are fragments of ancient continents. In the central part of the ocean there are groups of small islands of volcanic origin, and in tropical latitudes - groups of coral islands. The most famous groups of islands: Amirante, Seychelles, Comorno, Reunion, Maldives, Cocos.

water temperature currents in the ocean climatic zones. The cold Somali current lies off the coast of Africa, here average temperature water + 22- + 23 degrees C, in the northern part of the ocean the temperature of the surface layers can rise to + 29 degrees C, at the equator - + 26- + 28 degrees C, as you move south it drops to -1 degrees. Off the coast of Antarctica.

The flora and fauna of the Indian Ocean is rich and varied. Many tropical coasts are mangroves, where special communities of plants and animals have formed, adapted to regular flooding and drainage. Among these animals, one can note numerous crabs and an interesting fish - the mudskipper, which inhabits almost all the mangroves of the ocean. The shallow tropical waters are home to coral polyps, including many reef-building corals, fish and invertebrates. In temperate latitudes, in shallow water, red and brown algae grow in abundance, among which the most numerous are kelp, fucus and giant macrocysts. Phytoplankton is represented by peridineans in tropical waters and diatoms in temperate latitudes, as well as blue-green algae, which form dense seasonal aggregations in some places.

Among the animals living in the Indian Ocean, most of all are rhizopods, of which there are over 100 species. If we weigh all the rootpods in the waters of the ocean, then their total mass will exceed the mass of all its other inhabitants.

Invertebrates are represented by various molluscs (pteropods, cephalopods, valvular, etc.). A lot of jellyfish and siphonophores. In the waters of the open ocean, as in the Pacific Ocean, flying fish, tuna, dolphins, sailboats and luminous anchovies are numerous. There are many sea snakes, including poisonous ones, even a combed crocodile is found, prone to attacking people.

Mammals are represented by a large number and variety. Here there are whales of different species, and dolphins, and killer whales, and sperm whales. Many pinnipeds (fur seals, seals, dugongs). Cetaceans are especially abundant in the cold southern waters of the ocean, where krill feeding grounds are found.

Among those living here sea ​​birds frigatebirds and albatrosses can be noted, and in cold and temperate waters - penguins.

Despite the richness of the fauna of the Indian Ocean, fishing and fishing in this region are poorly developed. The total catch of fish and seafood in the Indian Ocean does not exceed 5% of the world catch. Fishing is represented only by tuna fishing in the central part of the ocean and by small fishing teams and individual fishermen of the coasts and island regions.
In some places (off the coast of Australia, Sri Lanka, etc.) pearl mining is developed.

Life is also present in the depths and bottom layer of the central part of the ocean. In contrast to the upper layers, which are more adapted for the development of flora and fauna, the deep-sea areas of the ocean are represented by a smaller number of individuals of the animal world, but in terms of species they surpass the surface. Life in the depths of the Indian Ocean has been studied very little, as well as the depths of the entire World Ocean. Only the contents of deep-sea trawls, and rare dives of bathyscaphes and similar devices into many kilometers of depths, can approximately tell about the local life forms. Many forms of animals that live here have forms of bodies and organs that are unusual for our eyes. Huge eyes, a toothy head larger than the rest of the body, bizarre fins and outgrowths on the body - all this is the result of animals adapting to life in conditions of pitch darkness and monstrous pressures in the depths of the ocean.

Many of the animals use luminous organs, or the light emitted by some benthic microorganisms (benthos) to attract prey and protect themselves from enemies. So, a small (up to 18 cm) platytroct fish found in deep water zones Indian Ocean uses glow for protection. In moments of danger, she can blind the enemy with a cloud of glowing slime and safely flee. Many living creatures that live in the dark depths of the deep-sea regions of the oceans and seas have similar weapons. great white shark. There are many shark-hazardous places in the Indian Ocean. Off the coast of Australia, Africa, the Seychelles, the Red Sea, Oceania, shark attacks on people are not uncommon.

There are many other animals dangerous to humans in the Indian Ocean. Poisonous jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, cone clams, tridacnae, Poisonous snakes and others can cause serious trouble for a person when communicating.

The following pages will tell about the seas that make up the Indian Ocean, about the flora and fauna of these seas, and, of course, about the sharks living in them.

Let's start with the Red Sea - a unique inland water body of the Indian Ocean basin

Indian Ocean is the warmest ocean on our planet. Occupying a fifth of the Earth's surface, the Indian Ocean is not the largest ocean, but it has rich flora and fauna, as well as a host of other advantages.

Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean occupies 20% of all the globe. This ocean is characterized by a rich and varied natural life.
shows vast territories and a large number of interesting islands for researchers and tourists. If you still don't know where Indian Ocean, map will prompt you.

Map of the currents of the Indian Ocean

Underwater world of the Indian Ocean

Rich and varied underwater world of the indian ocean. In it you can meet both very small aquatic inhabitants, and large and dangerous representatives of the aquatic world.

Since ancient times, man has been trying to subjugate the ocean and its inhabitants. In all ages on the inhabitants underwater world Indian Ocean hunting was organized.

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There are even those that can cause trouble to a person. For example, these are anemones that live in almost all the seas and oceans of our planet. sea ​​anemones can be found not only in the depths, but also in the shallow waters of the Indian Ocean. They almost always feel hungry, so they sit lurking with widely spaced tentacles. Predatory representatives of this species are poisonous. Their shot can hit small organisms, as well as cause burns to people. Sea urchins, seals, the most exotic species of fish live in the waters of the Indian Ocean. The flora is diverse, which makes diving truly exciting.

Fish in the Indian Ocean

The fish world of the Indian Ocean is rich and varied due to its location.

It is located in the southern and tropical zones. The climate here is different, which has affected the number of fish species living in the ocean.

Fauna of the Indian Ocean

In the shelf areas of the ocean, such fish live:

• anchovy;
• mackerel;
• sardanella;
• rock and reef perch;
• horse mackerel;

The mackerel family is represented by mockerel and tuna. Numerous detachments of anchovies, flying fish and sailboat fish.

It is impossible to list all the species, since scientists count several hundred of them in the ocean.

Here are just a few of them:

• Australian Bonito;
• white sarg;
• sixgill shark;
• longfin tuna;
• Indian lionfish;
• bluefish and others.

For lovers of extreme types of fishing, there is also something to do here. There are different types of sharks in the ocean. Sea snakes and swordfish also live here.

The fauna of the ocean is represented by shrimps and lobsters. There are many squids and cuttlefish.

Temperate fish

This area of ​​the ocean is characterized by large individuals, such as:

• sea ​​Elephant;
• dugong;
• blue and toothless whale;
• seal.

There is enough plankton in the ocean, which serves as an excellent food for the huge representatives of the reservoir.

Dangerous inhabitants

The underwater world of the ocean is not only interesting, but also dangerous. Here you can meet a killer whale or a whale.

The bite of a predatory moray eel is equivalent to the bite of a bulldog. Coral reefs reliably shelter fish - zebra or lionfish.

Fish-stone lives in shallow water. Her appearance is unsightly, her body is covered in growths, and there are more than ten poisonous needles on her back.

We must pay tribute: she never takes the initiative first and does not attack a person.

But if you just touch her, then the reaction, despite her outward clumsiness, will be instantaneous.

The sea urchin is distinguished by species diversity. They number about six hundred.

Their location is the tropical and subtropical regions of the Indian Ocean.