What eats zooplankton and phytoplankton?

Phytoplankton is eaten by small zooplankton, which are in turn eaten by other zooplankton. Those plankton are eaten by small fish and crustaceans, which in turn are eaten by larger predators, and so on.

Why is phytoplankton important to the food web?

Importance of phytoplankton Phytoplankton are the foundation of the aquatic food web, the primary producers, feeding everything from microscopic, animal-like zooplankton to multi-ton whales. Small fish and invertebrates also graze on the plant-like organisms, and then those smaller animals are eaten by bigger ones.

What is a zooplankton in a food web?

Zooplankton are small, aquatic microorganisms in the water column that include crustaceans, rotifers, open water insect larvae and aquatic mites. The zooplankton community is composed of both primary consumers, which eat free-floating algae, and secondary consumers, which feed on other zooplankton.

Is zooplankton a producer or consumer?

Phytoplankton are the tiny, plant-like producers of the plankton community. Zooplankton are the animal-like primary consumers of plankton communities. In turn, zooplankton then become food for larger, secondary consumers such as fish. Zooplankton include microscopic and macroscopic organisms.

What is phytoplankton’s main purpose in the food web?

Phytoplankton are photosynthesizing microscopic biotic organisms that inhabit the upper sunlit layer of almost all oceans and bodies of fresh water on Earth. They are agents for “primary production,” the creation of organic compounds from carbon dioxide dissolved in the water, a process that sustains the aquatic food web.

What is planktons role on a food web?

Plankton is categorized into the following groups based on their trophic role (the role they play within their food web): Phytoplankton are the primary producers of the planktonic world. They are photosynthetic plankton and include organisms such as diatoms, dinoflagellates, and cyanobacteria. Zooplankton is the consumers of the planktonic world. Bacterioplankton is the recyclers of the planktonic world.

What is a plankton role on a food web?

Plankton also play a role at the end of the food web-as decomposer s and detritivore s. These plankton, including bacteria, fungi, and worms, break down and consume dead plant and animal material that falls through the water column as “marine snow.”

What is Plankton on a food web?

Plankton is the foundation of the ocean food web. The word plankton comes from the Greek word “planktos” which means drifting.