Marine Ecosystem Interactions
- Consumer and Producer Relationships- seaweed on the ocean floor serves for
good food for small fish and other small organisms...plankton in the ocean is
very abundant and serves for great food for whales, krill, and other marine
animals...algae are also producers. an alga, according to Merriam Webster, is a
plant or plantlike organism of any of several phyla, divisions, or classes of
chiefly aquatic usually chlorophyll-containing nonvascular organisms of
polyphyletic origin that usually include the green, yellow-green, brown, and red
algae in the eukaryotes and especially formerly
the cyanobacteria in the prokaryotes. frogs and insects eat algae as a good
source of food. - Abiotic and Biotic Interactions- The interactions between abiotic and biotic
factors are the building blocks of the ecosystem’s around the world. The
difference between abiotic and biotic factors are that biotic is living and
abiotic are non-livi - Predator-Prey Relationships-The wrasse is a small fish that is a common
source for prey, on of it’s may predators is known as the Conger Eel, this Eel
is a predator at the top of the food chain in the marine ecosystem.
Bottom-Feeding Fishes are one of the top predators in the marine environment,
they can eat almost everything in their environment, one of their common species
of prey are progenic fishes. - Parasite and Host Relationship- a common relationship in the marine
ecosystem is between the pearl fish and the sea cucumber.(parasitism) The pearl
fish enters into the sea cucumber’s body and feeds on it’s respiratory tissues.
The fish then leaves a scent which then allows other pearl fish to find the
cucumber and feed...(mutualism)Another unusual example is between the boxer crab
and the anemones in the crab’s claws. When approached by a predator it flashes
the stinging tentacles which scares the predator. The anemone benefits from the
small food particles that fall during crab feeding...Crabs and shrimp are also a
good example of commensalism. Crabs get protection from the shrimp while the
shrimp get a good form of transportation across the ocean floor.
- decomposers are animals, bacteria, or fungus, that break down dead animal’s
bodies. - there are many decomposers in the ocean such as the sea slugs, shrimp,
crabs, lobster, starfish, and worms. they all break down dead sea life and clean
detrius (dead sea animal particles, etc.) from the ocean floor.
- The 10 percent law is the allocation of energy passed on from the producer
to the primary consumer, then the secondary consumer, and finally the tertiary
consumer, and the most energy is available at the bottom of the pyramid.. In our
marine biome, a good example would start with the seaweed on the ocean floor. It
consumes 90% of the total energy and then passes the remaining 10 percent to the
small fish and krill. Then they consume 90% of that energy and pass on 10% to
the secondary consumers such as the barracuda or other large fish. Then they
consume 90% of the remaining energy and transfer the 10% to the tertiary
consumers, such as the dolphins, killer whales, and sharks. They then consume
90% of the energy and the rest is either lost in respiration or metabolic rates.
- The recycling of nutrients is a pretty easy concept to understand. The
seaweed gets its nutrients from the sand and/or soil on the ocean floor and the
sun. When something consumes the seaweed, it gets the nutrients from the
seaweed. When a secondary consumer eats that consumer, it gets those same
nutrients from the primary consumer. Then the tertiary consumer consumes the
secondary consumer and gets the nutrients from it. When the tertiary consumer
dies, the nutrients get transferred back into the sand/soil by decomposers such
as sea slugs.