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Aquatic feeding mechanisms. Grouper capture their prey by sucking them into their mouths. Aquatic feeding mechanisms face a special difficulty as compared to feeding on land, because the density of water is about the same as that of the prey, so the prey tends to be pushed away when the mouth is closed. This problem was first identified by ...
Filter feeders can play an important role in condensing biomass and removing excess nutrients (such as nitrogen and phosphate) from the local waterbody, and are therefore considered water-cleaning ecosystem engineers. They are also important in bioaccumulation and, as a result, as indicator organisms. Filter feeders can be sessile, planktonic ...
The silver carp is a filter feeder, and possesses a specialized feeding apparatus capable of filtering particles as small as 4 μm. The gill rakers are fused into a sponge-like filter, and an epibranchial organ secretes mucus, which assists in trapping small particles. A strong buccal pump forces water through this filter.
The modes of feeding vary greatly between the different echinoderm taxa. Crinoids and some brittle stars tend to be passive filter-feeders, [89] [90] enmeshing suspended particles from passing water. Most sea urchins are grazers; [91] sea cucumbers are deposit feeders; [92] and the majority of starfish are active hunters. [93]
Since an appreciable fraction of this material was nutritious, rakers subsequently evolved as food-trapping mechanisms in filter feeders. Gill rakers, when long and closely set, play the same role in suspension-feeding fish such as herring, mullet, megamouth, basking and whale sharks, as baleen in the filter-feeding whales. [2]
Surf zone. The surf zone or breaker zone is the nearshore part of a body of open water between the line at which the waves break and the shore. As ocean surface waves approach a shore, they interact with the bottom, get taller and steeper, and break, forming the foamy surface called surf. The region of breaking waves defines the surf zone.
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.
Feeding and digestive system. Lancelets are passive filter feeders, [14] spending most of the time half-buried in sand with only their frontal part protruding. [66] They eat a wide variety of small planktonic organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, diatoms, and zooplankton, and they will also take detritus. [67]