In nature, all phenomena, processes, and their features are inter conditioned, and any correct phenomenological theory of a principal natural phenomenon should explain an ensemble of phenomena that are connected with it. The Life Origination Hydrate Hypothesis (LOH-Hypothesis) (its most complete version is at ResearchGate in our paper published in the Global Journal of Science Frontier Research) allowed us for explaining a number of phenomena that seem to be dissimilar. In particular, it allows an unobvious answering the question about small population of the Earth's ocean column. I purpose to propose this explanation somewhat later; however, beforehand, I would like to know whether any trivial explanation for this phenomenon exists.
World ocean column is too dynamic for most of its inhabitants to stay at a particular place.First among its members are the phytoplankton,& even though their spores are omnipresent,all of them do not flower at the same time,for the reason of their respective temperature tolerance.A second point is that these water columns have less minerals,resulting in lower production.As compared to upwelling taking place on almost all western coasts of continents,it is less in the areas under question.with very few exceptions. Most of the zooplankters having feeble powers of locomotion,are not able to immediately follow their food,and are also actively predated upon by numerous filter feeders, which can actively move over vast water bodies.On a comparative basis,life span of these plankton is shorter than those biota found on soil or near sea bed layers.
At present, when I see no rather comprehensive answer to this question, I would like to give my own answer to it. The fact of the matter is that, I consider this question as one of the important ones in the context of the problem of living matter origination and development (the publications of the Life Origination Hydrate Theory (LOH-Theory) are available at my and Elena Kadyshevich’s pages at the ResearchGate site). This question is considered in one of our last papers.
The answer to this question is, in my opinion, rather simple: "Just the lack of phosphate ions deters the ocean water column colonization by living organisms."
The solubility of phosphates in water at 293 K is about 3 mg/l. In ocean water, the contents (mg/l) of N, P, and C are 15.5, 0.088, and 28.0, respectively (Turekian K.K., (1968) “Oceans”, Prince-Hall), and, at the depth of 70 m, phosphate-ions content is about only 0.02 mg/l (Atkins W.R.G., “The phosphate content of seawater in relation to the growth of the algae phytoplankton”, Part III, J Marine Biological Association 14 (1926) 447–467). Meanwhile, in our days, an enormous number of living organisms exist on the Earth’s surface, near the seabed, and in under-seabed layers; therewith, each cell of these organisms contains DNA molecules and each DNA molecule includes a multitude of phosphate radicals. The total amount of phosphorus in vegetable and animal organisms existing now is very large. This means that, formerly, this entire phosphorus was accumulated in the Earth’s subsurface and under-seabed layers. The amount of mineral phosphorus at the primordial Earth was much larger than that at the today Earth. There can be no doubt that, in the days of the earlier life, phosphorus was present at the Earth in amounts sufficient for life origination.
Today, in the near-surface layers, the average concentration of phosphorus is significantly lower than that of C, N, O, or H. Therefore, in future, just the “resources” of phosphorus will limit the total mass of living organisms on the Earth (in the case that phosphorus will not diffuse to the surface from deeper layers). The seawater thickness is populated by living organisms very sparsely in comparison with near-seabed layers just because of low concentration of phosphate-ions in water; however, the near-seabed layers, even at depths of many kilometers, are abundantly populated, as living organisms get there phosphate-ions from the seabed soil.
The today plants get phosphate-ions from soil, and these ions diffuse to their roots, although the phosphorus concentration in the soil is low and phosphorus is sparingly soluble. Other ions do not bind chemically in plant cells, and, therefore, they don’t diffuse there from soil. In the same way, phosphate-ions diffused into the hydrate structures filled with nucleosides. Nature does not like emptiness. If a definite element binds chemically in some spatial region, a “vacuum” relative to this element arises in the vicinities of this region and atoms of this element diffuse into this “vacuum” from the environment. This process is slow, but it proceeds. Just due to the process of intra-soil diffusion, clumps of plants occur on the land and deep in the water, near the seabed. Plants get phosphorus from the soil, and animals get phosphorus by eating plants, which had accumulated it, and by eating other animals, which accumulated phosphorus by eating plants and animals. Some living organisms that have features of both plants and animals are also known. However, plants appeared primarily and, then, some of them “learned to live” and reproduce progeny by using plants as “half-products”.
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