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Zooplankton feed on bacterioplankton, phytoplankton, other zooplankton (sometimes cannibalistically), detritus (or marine snow) and even nektonic organisms. As a result, zooplankton are primarily found in surface waters where food resources (phytoplankton or other zooplankton) are abundant. Zooplankton can also act as a disease reservoir.
[4] [5] For example, a large marine vertebrate may eat smaller predatory fish but may also eat filter feeders; the stingray eats crustaceans, but the hammerhead eats both crustaceans and stingrays. Animals can also eat each other; the cod eats smaller cod as well as crayfish, and crayfish eat cod larvae. The feeding habits of a juvenile animal ...
Their diet varies considerably as well: some may eat zooplankton; others may eat fish, squid, shellfish, and sea-grass; and a few may eat other mammals. In a process of convergent evolution , marine mammals such as dolphins and whales redeveloped their body plan to parallel the streamlined fusiform body plan of pelagic fish .
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 23 February 2025. Organisms living in water or air that are drifters on the current or wind This article is about the marine organisms. For other uses, see Plankton (disambiguation). Marine microplankton and mesoplankton Part of the contents of one dip of a hand net. The image contains diverse planktonic ...
They inhabit very diverse environments, from hydrothermal vents to deep ocean seafloor, to seagrass beds and marine caves. [5] The majority are planktonic, and they are often the second most common component of zooplankton , with a biomass ranging between 10 and 30% that of copepods . [ 5 ]
A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. [1] [2] Planktivorous organisms encompass a range of some of the planet's smallest to largest multicellular animals in both the present day and in the past billion years; basking sharks and copepods are just two examples of giant and microscopic organisms that feed upon plankton.
Few species were originally considered to feed directly on seagrass leaves (partly because of their low nutritional content), but scientific reviews and improved working methods have shown that seagrass herbivory is an important link in the food chain, feeding hundreds of species, including green turtles, dugongs, manatees, fish, geese, swans ...
In contrast, the polar bear is mostly terrestrial and only go into the water on occasions of necessity, and are thus much less adapted to aquatic living. The diets of marine mammals vary considerably as well; some eat zooplankton, others eat fish, squid, shellfish, or seagrass, and a few eat other mammals. While the number of marine mammals is ...