Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A marine food web is a food web of marine life. At the base of the ocean food web are single-celled algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton. The second trophic level ( primary consumers) is occupied by zooplankton which feed off the phytoplankton. Higher order consumers complete the web.
t. e. Phytoplankton ( / ˌfaɪtoʊˈplæŋktən /) are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν ( phyton ), meaning ' plant ', and πλαγκτός ( planktos ), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. [ 1][ 2][ 3] Phytoplankton ...
Phytoplankton are an essential base of the marine food web and absorb carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean that originally came from the atmosphere. The tiny organisms occupy the uppermost layer of ocean water, called the mixed layer, where waves and currents continually churn, drawing up nutrients from a deeper layer of water below ...
The aquatic microbial loop is a marine trophic pathway which incorporates dissolved organic carbon into the food chain.. The microbial loop describes a trophic pathway where, in aquatic systems, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is returned to higher trophic levels via its incorporation into bacterial biomass, and then coupled with the classic food chain formed by phytoplankton-zooplankton-nekton.
1) Phytoplankton are the base of the ocean’s food chain, feeding everything from tiny zooplankton to huge whales. 2) They are responsible for removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which ...
Around 70% of the oxygen in the atmosphere is produced in the oceans from phytoplankton performing photosynthesis, meaning that the majority of the oxygen available for us and other organisms that respire aerobically is produced by plankton. [71] Plankton also make up the base of the marine food web, providing food for all the trophic levels above.
Ocean ecosystems are finely balanced and any change in the phytoplankton will send ripples across the food chain. “All changes are causing an imbalance in the natural organization of ecosystems.
Photosynthesis produces more of it. Being the first link in the food chain, what happens to phytoplankton creates a rippling effect for other species. Besides phytoplankton, many other animals also live in this zone and utilize these nutrients. The majority of ocean life occurs in the photic zone, the smallest ocean zone by water volume.