There are areas of biological activity surrounded by areas of inactivity. This patchiness exists both horizontally and vertically, on an oceanic scale and at the level of the minuscule. In research still to be published, for example, Azam' s graduate student Richard Long extracted microliter samples of sea water every two millimeters, a total of eight samples taken from an inch-long length of ocean. Long discovered that each microliter sample contained at least 20 microbial species, with distinct species living in some samples. The greater the level of organic matter, the greater the patchiness.
Basic biology provides some clues.
But phytoplankton require their own supply of nutrients to do this. These negatively charged sugars react with positively charged ions of calcium, magnesium and sodium in the water, aligning themselves into microfibrils that aggregate into larger sheets, webs, disks and balls with the consistency and behavior of gel. Bacteria flock to these TEPs, which Alldredge said ranged from 28 to 5,000 particles per microliter of examined sea water. The TEPs, according to Alldredge, are sticky and act as a sort of biological glue, binding TEPs together or with other matter, such as microscopic fecal pellets from plankton, drifting strands of DNA and algal cells. Bacteria chow down upon this smorgasbord, employing enzymes like knife and fork to chemically break down material they can absorb, all the while belching out phosphates and ammonia as waste.