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The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor. 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.
Plankton also make up the base of the marine food web, providing food for all the trophic levels above. Recent studies have analyzed the marine food web to see if the system runs on a top-down or bottom-up approach. Essentially, this research is focused on understanding whether changes in the food web are driven by nutrients at the bottom of ...
Both plankton play a huge role in keeping our ocean ecosystem healthy. Most zooplankton sink towards the bottom of the ocean during the day, and at night they migrate towards the surface and feed ...
Phytoplankton (/ ˌ f aɪ t oʊ ˈ p l æ ŋ k t ə n /) 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'.
These plankton are eaten by numerous forms of filter feeders—mussels, clams, barnacles, sea squirts, and polychaete worms—which filter seawater in their search for planktonic food sources. [13] The adjacent ocean is also a primary source of nutrients for autotrophs, photosynthesizing producers ranging in size from microscopic algae (e.g ...
Pelagic food web and the biological pump. Links among the ocean's biological pump and pelagic food web and the ability to sample these components remotely from ships, satellites, and autonomous vehicles. Light blue waters are the euphotic zone, while the darker blue waters represent the twilight zone. [80]
The distribution of trace metals and relative abundance of macronutrients are reflected in the plankton community structure. For example, the selection of phytoplankton with a high surface area to volume ratio results in HNLC regions being dominated by nano- and picoplankton. This ratio allows for optimal utilization of available dissolved ...
Seaweeds are found along coastal areas, living on the floor of continental shelves and washed up in intertidal zones. Some seaweeds drift with plankton in the sunlit surface waters (epipelagic zone) of the open ocean. Back in the Silurian, some phytoplankton evolved into red, brown and green algae.