THE SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF PARTICLES IN THE OCEAN1

Abstract

Frequency distributions of particle size between sizes of about 1 and 100 µ are given for both surface and deep water of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The form of the size spectra varies predictably both geographically and with depth. A hypothesis is presented to show that, to a first approximation, roughly equal concentrations of material occur at all particle sizes within the range from 1 µ to about 10 8 µ , i.e. from bacteria to whales.