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The main food sources for the benthos are phytoplankton and organic detrital matter. [16] [17] In coastal locations, organic run off from land provides an additional food source. [18] Meiofauna and bacteria consume and recycle organic matter in the sediments, playing an important role in returning nitrate and phosphate to the pelagic. [19]
This amount will vary on the depth of the benthos, and the degree of benthic-pelagic coupling. The benthos in a shallow region will have more available food than the benthos in the deep sea. Because of their reliance on it, microbes may become spatially dependent on detritus in the benthic zone.
Filamentous cyanobacteria growing on an underwater surface. Phytobenthos (/. f aɪ t oʊ ˈ b ɛ n θ ɒ s /) (from Greek φυτόν (phyton, meaning "plants") and βένθος (benthos, meaning "depths") are autotrophic organisms found attached to bottom surfaces of aquatic environments, such as rocks, sediments, or even other organisms.
Benthic-pelagic coupling are processes that connect the benthic zone and the pelagic zone through the exchange of energy, mass, or nutrients. These processes play a prominent role in both freshwater and marine ecosystems and are influenced by a number of chemical, biological, and physical forces that are crucial to functions from nutrient cycling to energy transfer in food webs.
Macrobenthos consists of the organisms that live at the bottom of a water column [1] and are visible to the naked eye. [2] In some classification schemes, these organisms are larger than 1 mm; [1] in another, the smallest dimension must be at least 0.5 mm. [3] They include polychaete worms, pelecypods, anthozoans, echinoderms, sponges, ascidians, crustaceans.
The benthic boundary layer (BBL) is the layer of water directly above the sediment at the bottom of a body of water (river, lake, or sea, etc.). [1] Through specific sedimentation processes, certain organisms are able to live in this deep layer of water.
[7] [9] [10] Furthermore, the neuston provides a food source to the zooplankton migrating from deeper layers to the surface, [11] as well as to seabirds roaming over the oceans. [12] For these reasons, the neustonic community is believed to play a critical role on the structure and function of marine food webs .
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.