Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers Trophic Levels Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers

Food Web Components Producer (ex. plankton) Consumer (ex. fish) Decomposer (ex. bacteria)

Food Chain vs. Food Web Food Chain: path of energy from one organism to the next Food Web: interconnected food chains

Producers A photosynthetic plant (use sun) or chemo-synthetic bacterium (use chemical reactions) Constituting the first trophic level in a food chain An autotrophic organism (can produce its own food)

Producers Most producers use water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight to produce food for themselves and oxygen for other marine life.

Ocean Plants: Producers Producers make up the largest biomass of the ocean Producers help sustain marine ecosystems by providing oxygen and food for marine life Includes: phytoplankton, diatoms, and dinoflagellates, algal films, and seaweed

What is a Consumer? A heterotrophic organism that ingests other organisms or organic matter in a food chain. Herbivore Carnivore Omnivore Detritivore

Consumers - Herbivores Animals that feeds mainly on plants/plankton

Consumers - Carnivores Flesh eating animals.

Consumers - Omnivores Organisms that eats both plants and animals

Consumers - Detritovores Organisms that feeds on dead plant or animal matter

Consumer Levels

Marine Primary Consumers Filter Feeders Grazers Browsers

Filter Feeders Eat diatoms Convert plant material into animal tissue Ex. Barnacles- extend feathers into water

Grazers Eat algal films on rocks and surfaces Most grazers are classified as Molluscs Ex. Sea Slugs, Snails, Limpids

Browsers Eat algae Browsers are an important element of coral reef ecology

Marine Secondary Consumers Cnidarians Comb Jellyfish Echinoderms Arthropods Molluscs Vertebrates

Cnidarians Great abundance in the ocean Corals, Sea Jellies, Anemones Have stinging tentacles that stun prey and move them into the gut of the cnidarian Feed by predation

Comb Sea Jellies Classified as Ctenophora Hydroid in early stages of life then grow to become a free floater Use cilia for movement Tentacles are used for capturing food Transparency helps with protection - makes them nearly invisible

Echinoderm Organisms with bilateral symmetry Spiny skinned and have tube feet Water Vascular System Ex. Sea Stars, Sea Cucumbers, Sea Urchin

Arthropod Jointed legged invertebrate Segmented body with hard exoskeleton Eat by predation, browsing seaweed, scavengers Ex. crabs, shrimps, sea spiders

Molluscs Body without cavity, bilateral symmetry Wide range of feeding (primary grazers) Ex. Snails, Slugs, Squid, Bivalves Largest Mollusc: Octopus

Vertebrates Internal skeleton, nerve chord, and backbone Mostly predators Largest predatory vertebrate: whale Ex. dolphins, seals, sea turtles

Decomposers An organism, often a bacterium, that feeds on and breaks down dead plant or animal matter, thus making organic nutrients available to the ecosystem Puts nutrients back into the water in their elemental form to be used by producers as fertilizer

Review Producers (algae, sea weed, phytoplankton) Primary Consumers (grazers, browsers, filter feeders) eat producers Secondary consumers eat primary consumers Scavengers (ex. crabs) eat dead plants and animals Decomposers (ex. bacteria and fungi) eat the last bit of usable energy for organic matter