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Marine food webs. Feeding relationships are often shown as simple food chains – in reality, these relationships are much more complex, and the term ‘food web’ more accurately shows the links between producers, consumers and decomposers. A food web diagram illustrates ‘what eats what’ in a particular habitat.
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 second trophic level (primary consumers) is occupied by zooplankton which feed off the phytoplankton. Higher order consumers complete the web.
Made of interconnected food chains, food webs help us understand how changes to ecosystems — say, removing a top predator or adding nutrients — affect many different species, both directly and indirectly. Phytoplankton and algae form the bases of aquatic food webs.
Food webs consist of different organism groupings called trophic levels. In this example of a coral reef, there are producers, consumers, and decomposers. Producers make up the first trophic level .
The primary marine food web, which is based on plant productivity, includes many of the sea's species—but not all of them. There are other deep-ocean ecosystems that are entirely independent...
Here we investigate how the distribution of trophic interactions at the global scale shapes the marine fish food web structure.
Many species consume more than one type of species, creating a complex web of interactions known as a food web. In the visual below, you can see an example of a food web in the open ocean ecosystem and also one food chain that is a part of that food web.
For a long time, scientist viewed the marine food web as a way for energy to travel from the plant-like phytoplankton to larger consumers like fish and turtles—big things consuming little things. Now it’s known that the microscopic world has a part to play too.
At AnimalWised, we discover the food chain of the ocean, learning how energy and matter pass between species to create some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. We also learn about how specific aquatic food chains exist within the context of a large marine ecosystem food web.
This food pyramid displays a basic marine food web. Organisms on the first trophic level, such as plants and algae, are consumed by organisms on the second trophic level, such as conchs and blue tangs. At the top of the food web is an apex predator, a shark. Illustration by Tim Gunther.