Phytoplankton Food Chain In The Ocean

In a balanced ecosystem they provide food for a wide range of sea creatures.

Phytoplankton food chain in the ocean. Phytoplankton consist mostly of algae and bacteria and are the foundation of the marine food chain. Food chainsor food websof lakes and other freshwaters also depend on phytoplankton for their food. These small plants are very important to the ocean and to the whole planet.

Phytoplankton are the marine plants that grow most in the sunlit surface ocean. Also some types of algae seaweed unicellular plants bacteria etc. Similarly when there are not enough phytoplankton to make food or if the wrong types of phytoplankton grow the food chain of the sea can collapse turning the ocean into a watery desert wasteland.

Larger and larger zooplankton fish and mammals depend on these plankton. These phytoplankton floats on the ocean surface. Then bigger fish eat the little fish etc.

Phytoplankton are the foundation of the aquatic food web the primary producers feeding everything from microscopic animal-like zooplankton to multi-ton whales. Photosynthesis by the phytoplankton accounts for up to half of global primary production. The term plankton refers to the body of passively floating or weakly motile organisms in a natural water body and is chiefly made up of phytoplankton zooplankton bacteria and viruses as well.

Phytoplankton Food Chain In The Ocean. In the oceans phytoplankton. The Word Phytoplankton is derived from the Greek words Phyto plant and plankton made to wander or drift.

The more phytoplankton present in the ocean water the greater the concentration of plant pigments. These small plants are very important to the ocean and to the whole planet. A food web is a system of interconnected food chains.