I saw a post about an octopus swimming in really shallow water, but wouldn’t there be less oxygen there? Is it dependent on where there are sea plants?
In: Biology
Different ocean depths have different oxygen levels. Near the surface the ocean has a similar oxygen level to the air.
Organic matter sinks down, and is eaten by bacteria and such as it goes. Oxygen levels can decrease with depth because it is used up by those bacteria in the deeper water. Below a certain point the organic matter decreases to basically nothing because it has been eaten and/or biodegraded, so there is less life the deeper you go because there’s nothing for it to eat. Very deep ocean can have a higher oxygen level than above because 1. It’s colder and colder water holds more oxygen 2. There are less organisms using up the oxygen.
Basically that octopus in the shallow water is getting plenty of oxygen since surface water has a lot.
Read about Ocean Homeostasis and Oceanic oxygen levels here – the basic answer is yes – there are different amounts
[O2 oxygenation ](https://www.oceanscientists.org/index.php/topics/ocean-deoxygenation)
There isn’t some fundamental barrier between air and water, oxygen can diffuse from the air into the water (and vice versa). Algae which produces oxygen stays near the surface as the sun exposure is necessary, but ocean water tends to be stirred around by wave action such that oxygen would be mixed in regardless.
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