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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.
A planktivore is an aquatic organism that feeds on planktonic food, including zooplankton and phytoplankton. [1] [2] Planktivorous organisms encompass a range of some of the planet's smallest to largest multicellular animals in both the present day and in the past billion years; basking sharks and copepods are just two examples of giant and microscopic organisms that feed upon plankton.
Marine ciliates are major grazers of the phytoplankton. [97] [98] Phytoplankton primary production supports higher trophic levels and fuels microbial remineralization. [99] [100] The dominant pelagic grazers of phytoplankton are typically associated with distinct operating modes of the food web compartments and nutrient cycling.
Since phytoplankton need the sun’s rays to produce energy, they are usually found close to the surface of the water. Now, zooplankton are animals. They feed on nutrients in the water ...
The position that a fish occupies in a food web is called its trophic level (Greek trophē = food). The organisms it eats are at a lower trophic level, and the organisms that eat it are at a higher trophic level. Forage fish occupy middle levels in the food web, serving as a dominant prey to higher level fish, seabirds and mammals.
Phytoplankton perform three crucial functions: they generate nearly half of the world atmospheric oxygen, they regulate ocean and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and they form the base of the marine food web. When conditions are right, blooms of phytoplankton algae can occur in surface waters.
Fish larvae are part of the zooplankton that eat smaller plankton, while fish eggs carry their own food supply. Both eggs and larvae are themselves eaten by larger animals. [2] [3] Fish can produce high numbers of eggs which are often released into the open water column. Fish eggs typically have a diameter of about 1 millimetre (0.039 in).
The marine carbon cycle. Carbon dioxide is taken up by phytoplankton for photosynthesis and incorporated into the marine food web. When plankton or predator dies, sedimentation of organic matter reaches the seafloor, where carbon can be buried and sequestered.