Diel vertical migration

Diel vertical migration is the recurring daily movement of aquatic organisms between deeper water and near-surface waters, often rising at night and descending by day.

Diel light cycle: The repeating daily pattern of daylight and darkness caused by Earth's rotation. Changing illumination provides a widespread timing cue for ascent and descent.
Biological carbon pump: The movement of carbon from surface waters to the ocean interior through biological processes. Migrants carry surface-derived carbon downward through respiration, excretion, and mortality.
Normal diel vertical migration: A pattern in which organisms rise toward the surface at night and descend during daylight. This is the most familiar form of the broader daily migration phenomenon.
Ocean deoxygenation: The decline of dissolved oxygen in ocean waters, driven by warming and other processes. Low-oxygen layers can constrain how deep migrants travel and where they can survive.
Visual predation: Predation in which hunters detect and capture prey using vision. Many migrants descend during daylight to reduce detection by visually hunting predators.
Active transport of carbon: The biological movement of carbon to depth by organisms that swim or migrate. It isolates the carbon-export contribution made specifically by animal movement.
Partial diel vertical migration: A pattern in which only part of a population migrates vertically each day. Migrants and nonmigrants can coexist within one population.
Ocean warming: The long-term increase in ocean temperature caused primarily by human-driven climate change. Warming may shift migration depths, timing, and the metabolic costs of movement.
Zooplankton: Small drifting animals and animal-like organisms that inhabit aquatic environments. Zooplankton are among the best-studied organisms that migrate between deep water and the surface.
Trophic cascade: A chain of ecological effects caused when changes at one trophic level affect other levels. Migration changes when and where predators encounter prey, with effects across food webs.

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