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A 2020 study reported that by 2050 global warming could be spreading in the deep ocean seven times faster than it is now, even if emissions of greenhouse gases are cut. Warming in mesopelagic and deeper layers could have major consequences for the deep ocean food web, since ocean species will need to move to stay at survival temperatures. [66] [67]
Primary production in the ocean can be contrasted with primary production on land. Globally the ocean and the land each produce about the same amount of primary production, but in the ocean primary production comes mainly from cyanobacteria and algae, while on land it comes mainly from vascular plants.
In the ocean, they provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish, and baleen whales. Marine plankton include bacteria , archaea , algae , protozoa , microscopic fungi , [ 4 ] and drifting or floating animals that inhabit the saltwater of oceans and the brackish waters of estuaries .
Marine life, sea life or ocean life is the collective ecological communities that encompass all aquatic animals, plants, algae, fungi, protists, single-celled microorganisms and associated viruses living in the saline water of marine habitats, either the sea water of marginal seas and oceans, or the brackish water of coastal wetlands, lagoons ...
The distinction between autotrophy and heterotrophy often breaks down in very small organisms. Recent studies of marine microplankton have indicated over half of microscopic plankton are mixotrophs, which can obtain energy and carbon from a mix of internal plastids and external sources. Many marine microzooplankton are mixotrophic, which means ...
Mixotrophs can be either eukaryotic or prokaryotic. [31] They can take advantage of different environmental conditions. [32] Recent studies of marine microzooplankton found 30–45% of the ciliate abundance was mixotrophic, and up to 65% of the amoeboid, foram and radiolarian biomass was mixotrophic. [5]
The sea surface microlayer (SML) at the air-sea interface is a distinct, under-studied habitat compared to the subsurface and copepods, important components of ocean food webs, have developed key adaptations to exploit this niche. [40] The ocean-spanning SML forms the boundary between the atmosphere and the hydrosphere.
While many chimpanzees are naturally hydrophobic, Sakamaki (1998) found that those in Mahale have been observed to submerge themselves into freshwater and eat algae. [7] This observation is the first documentation of a primate using algae in the wild as a food source and is an important marker of possible adaptation in the species.