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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 ...
Cnidaria. Cnidaria (/ nɪˈdɛəriə, naɪ -/ nih-DAIR-ee-ə, NY-) [4] is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species [5] of aquatic animals found both in fresh water and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroids, sea anemones, corals and some of the smallest marine parasites.
The Scyphozoa are an exclusively marine class of the phylum Cnidaria, [2] referred to as the true jellyfish (or "true jellies"). The class name Scyphozoa comes from the Greek word skyphos (σκύφος), denoting a kind of drinking cup and alluding to the cup shape of the organism. [3] Scyphozoans have existed from the earliest Cambrian to the ...
Ctenophora. Ctenophora (/ təˈnɒfərə / tə-NOF-ər-ə; sg.: ctenophore / ˈtɛnəfɔːr, ˈtiːnə -/ TEN-ə-for, TEE-nə-; from Ancient Greek κτείς (kteis) 'comb' and φέρω (pherō) 'to carry') [6] comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the ...
Animals are multicellular eukaryotes, [note 1] and are distinguished from plants, algae, and fungi by lacking cell walls. [1] Marine invertebrates are animals that inhabit a marine environment apart from the vertebrate members of the chordate phylum; invertebrates lack a vertebral column. Some have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton.
A tunicate is an exclusively marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (/ ˌtjuːnɪˈkeɪtə / TEW-nih-KAY-tə). This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates). The subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, and the term ...
Sea pens are marine cnidarians belonging to the order Pennatulacea, which are colony -forming benthic filter feeders within the class Octocorallia (subphylum Anthozoa). There are 14 families within the order and 35 extant genera; it is estimated that of 450 described species, around 200 are valid.
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]