In the Twilight Zone

The ocean’s Twilight Zone is the dimly lit region extending from a few hundred metres depth to 1,000m. It is poorly understood from almost any perspective yet important in many ways. The aim of JETZON is to provide the scientific understanding necessary to inform a sustainable approach to the management and conservation of the Twilight Zone ecosystem.

Five Key Messages About the Twilight Zone

1. The Twilight Zone is the most exciting place you may have never heard of.

This dimly lit region below the ocean surface is a globe-spanning, diverse ecosystem teeming with life and through which vast numbers of creatures commute every day to feed by night in the surface.

2. The Twilight Zone affects life everywhere in the ocean.

The Twilight Zone recycles nutrients fueling the whole ocean ecosystem, provides hunting for tuna and sperm whales, and controls the supply of food to deeper-living creatures, all the way to the seafloor.

3. The Twilight Zone influences how the ocean stores carbon.

Huge amounts of carbon that may otherwise be in the atmosphere pass through the Twilight Zone ecosystem which controls how long it can stay trapped in the ocean.

4. The Twilight Zone is under pressure.

Climate change is already increasing temperatures and decreasing oxygen in the Twilight Zone with deep-sea mining, fishing and carbon dioxide removal schemes emerging as extra human pressures.

5. The Twilight Zone requires international cooperation to address the challenges facing it.

The majority of the Twilight Zone lies beyond national boundaries and unlocking its many mysteries to inform a sustainable future requires a collaborative, inclusive approach.

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