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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.
The tiny (0.6 μm) marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, discovered in 1986, forms today an important part of the base of the ocean food chain and accounts for much of the photosynthesis of the open ocean [140] and an estimated 20% of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. [141]
Bacteria. In the microbial food web, bacteria play a crucial role in breaking down organic materials and recycling nutrients. They transform DOC into bacterial biomass so that protists and other higher trophic levels can consume it. Additionally, bacteria take part in the nitrogen and carbon cycles, among other biogeochemical cycles. [4] Algae
The tiny (0.6 μm) marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus, discovered in 1986, forms today an important part of the base of the ocean food chain and accounts for much of the photosynthesis of the open ocean [84] and an estimated 20% of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere. [85]
This dead and decaying matter sustains the benthic food chain; most organisms in the benthic zone are scavengers or detritivores. Some microorganisms use chemosynthesis to produce biomass. Benthic organisms can be divided into two categories based on whether they make their home on the ocean floor or a few centimeters into the ocean floor.
New research shows that chemicals leached from ocean plastic impair the growth and oxygen production of the planet's most abundant photosynthesiser - endangering marine ecosystems and the climate.
In the ocean, animal–microbial relationships were historically explored in single host–symbiont systems. However, new explorations into the diversity of marine microorganisms associating with diverse marine animal hosts is moving the field into studies that address interactions between the animal host and a more multi-member microbiome .
This means primary producers become the starting point in the food chain for heterotroph organisms that do eat other organisms. Some marine primary producers are specialised bacteria and archaea which are chemotrophs, making their own food by gathering around hydrothermal vents and cold seeps and using chemosynthesis.