Phytoplankton Food Chain In The Ocean

Phytoplankton Food Chain In The Ocean.

Phytoplankton food chain in the ocean. Food chains are natures way of transferring energy between different species. These small plants are very important to the ocean and to the whole planet. They also provide the primary food source for the zooplankton and together form the base of the oceanic food chain.

Many small fish and whales eat them. The foundation of the seas food chain is largely invisible. A Three Step Food Chain.

Larger and larger zooplankton fish and mammals depend on these plankton. Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that live in the ocean. A food web is a system of interconnected food chains.

Like land plants they take up carbon dioxide make carbohydrates using light energy and release oxygen. The food chain is organized into trophic levels and the base trophic level or bottom rung of this system contains organisms that make their own food. Small fish and invertebrates also graze on the plant-like organisms and then those smaller animals are eaten by bigger ones.

Countless billions of one-celled organisms called phytoplankton saturate sunlit upper-ocean waters worldwide. Photosynthesis by the phytoplankton accounts for up to half of global primary production. Phytoplankton are the marine plants that grow most in the sunlit surface ocean.

Phytoplankton food chain in the ocean. These small plants are considered very important for the ocean and to the earth as they are a very basic and crucial factor of the food chain. Sometimes the diameter of the phytoplankton is more than 3 mm.