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The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor. A marine food web is a food web of marine life. At the base of the ocean food web are single-celled algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton.
Herbivory is of extreme ecological importance and prevalence among insects.Perhaps one third (or 500,000) of all described species are herbivores. [4] Herbivorous insects are by far the most important animal pollinators, and constitute significant prey items for predatory animals, as well as acting as major parasites and predators of plants; parasitic species often induce the formation of galls.
Extant sirenians grow to between 2.5 and 4 metres (8.2 and 13.1 ft) in length and can weigh up to 1,500 kilograms (3,300 lb). Steller's sea cow was the largest known sirenian to have lived, and could reach lengths of 9 metres (30 ft) [41] and weight of 8 to 10 tonnes (8.8 to 11.0 short tons). [44]
For example, increased abundance of herbivores such as deer decrease plant diversity and species richness, [37] while other large mammalian herbivores like bison control dominant species which allows other species to flourish. [38] Plant-herbivore interactions can also operate so that plant communities mediate herbivore communities. [39]
Like sea angels, they take in organic moles by consuming other organisms, so they are commonly called consumers. Heterotrophs can be classified by what they usually eat as herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, or decomposers. [1] On the other hand, autotrophs are organisms that use energy directly from the sun or from chemical bonds.
Another example of a multitrophic interaction is a trophic cascade, in which predators help to increase plant growth and prevent overgrazing by suppressing herbivores. Links in a food-web illustrate direct trophic relations among species, but there are also indirect effects that can alter the abundance, distribution, or biomass in the trophic ...
Seagrass meadows provide food for many marine herbivores. Sea turtles, manatees, parrotfish, surgeonfish, sea urchins and pinfish feed on seagrasses. Many other smaller animals feed on the epiphytes and invertebrates that live on and among seagrass blades. [86]
Amphipoda (/ æ m ˈ f ɪ p ə d ə /) is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods (/ ˈ æ m f ɪ p ɒ d z /) range in size from 1 to 340 millimetres (0.039 to 13 in) and are mostly detritivores or scavengers.