The pelagic food web, showing the central involvement of marine microorganisms in how the ocean imports nutrients from and then exports them back to the atmosphere and ocean floor
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Compared to terrestrial environments, marine environments have biomass pyramids which are inverted at the base. In particular, the biomass of consumers (copepods, krill, shrimp, forage fish) is larger than the biomass of primary producers. This happens because the ocean's primary producers are tiny phytoplankton which grow and reproduce rapidly, so a small mass can have a fast rate of primary production. In contrast, many significant terrestrial primary producers, such as mature forests, grow and reproduce slowly, so a much larger mass is needed to achieve the same rate of primary production.
Because of this inversion, it is the zooplankton that make up most of the marine animal biomass. As primary consumers, zooplankton are the crucial link between the primary producers (mainly phytoplankton) and the rest of the marine food web (secondary consumers).[1]
If phytoplankton dies before it is eaten, it descends through the euphotic zone as part of the marine snow and settles into the depths of sea. In this way, phytoplankton sequester about 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the ocean each year, causing the ocean to become a sink of carbon dioxide holding about 90% of all sequestered carbon.[2] The ocean produces about half of the world's oxygen and stores 50 times more carbon dioxide than the atmosphere.[3]
An ecosystem cannot be understood without knowledge of how its food web determines the flow of materials and energy. Phytoplankton autotrophically produces biomass by converting inorganic compounds into organic ones. In this way, phytoplankton functions as the foundation of the marine food web by supporting all other life in the ocean. The second central process in the marine food web is the microbial loop. This loop degrades marine bacteria and archaea, remineralises organic and inorganic matter, and then recycles the products either within the pelagic food web or by depositing them as marine sediment on the seafloor.[4]
^U S Department of Energy (2008) Carbon Cycling and Biosequestration page 81, Workshop report DOE/SC-108, U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science.
^Campbell, Mike (22 June 2011). "The role of marine plankton in sequestration of carbon". EarthTimes. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
^Why should we care about the ocean? NOAA: National Ocean Service. Updated: 7 January 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
^Heinrichs, M.E., Mori, C. and Dlugosch, L. (2020) "Complex Interactions Between Aquatic Organisms and Their Chemical Environment Elucidated from Different Perspectives". In: Jungblut S., Liebich V., Bode-Dalby M. (Eds) YOUMARES 9-The Oceans: Our Research, Our Future , pages 279–297. Springer. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-20389-4_15.
Fishing down the foodweb is the process whereby fisheries in a given ecosystem, "having depleted the large predatory fish on top of the foodweb, turn to increasingly...
the general foundation of the ocean food chain, particularly phytoplankton which are key primary producers. Marine invertebrates exhibit a wide range of...
provide a crucial source of food to many small and large aquatic organisms, such as bivalves, fish, and baleen whales. Marine plankton include bacteria...
conditions, and survive wherever they are." Marine microorganisms serve as "the foundation of all marinefoodwebs, recycling major elements and producing...
These impact marine ecosystems and foodwebs and may result in consequences as yet unrecognised for the biodiversity and continuation of marine life forms...
on foodwebs across marine environments as well as on a more macro scale on the global carbon budget. Viral shunt influences carbon cycling in marine environments...
bacteriophages which infect and destroy marine bacteria and control the growth of phytoplankton at the base of the marinefoodweb. Bacteriophages are harmless to...
foundation of the marinefoodweb, polynyas are a critical food source for a variety of organisms such as fish, birds, and marine mammals. Listed below...
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levels in marinefoodwebs, zooplankton also play an important role as “recyclers” of carbon and other nutrients that significantly impact marine biogeochemical...
A food chain is a linear network of links in a foodweb, often starting with an autotroph (such as grass or algae), also called a producer, and typically...
ocean food chains. When pesticides are incorporated into the marine ecosystem, they quickly become absorbed into marinefoodwebs. Once in the foodwebs, these...
scale to climate variations. Phytoplankton form the base of marine and freshwater foodwebs and are key players in the global carbon cycle. They account...
including other marine reptiles in a fashion similar to an orca. This has been taken as evidence for the richness of marinefoodwebs throughout the Triassic...
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a foodweb. A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may...
efficiency of the marinefoodweb via the utilization of dissolved organic matter (DOM), which is typically unavailable to most marine organisms. In this...
The microbial foodweb refers to the combined trophic interactions among microbes in aquatic environments. These microbes include viruses, bacteria, algae...
of climate-active marine aerosols. The diagram on the right shows links among the ocean's biological pump and the pelagic foodweb and the ability to...
(2005-12-01). "Mercury and other trace elements in a pelagic Arctic marinefoodweb (Northwater Polynya, Baffin Bay)". Science of the Total Environment...
Phytoplankton form the lowest trophic level of marinefoodwebs and thus capture light energy and materials to provide food and energy for hundreds of thousands...
world have made their way to the Arctic marinefoodweb. This poses a health risk to people who eat "country food" (traditional Inuit foodstuffs). As whales...
levels in marinefoodwebs, zooplankton also play an important role as "recyclers" of carbon and other nutrients that significantly impact marine biogeochemical...
Rachel; Cole, Matthew (2018-01-01). "Chapter 11 - Microplastics in MarineFoodWebs". In Zeng, Eddy Y. (ed.). Microplastic Contamination in Aquatic Environments...
toxic to either one or many members of the marinefoodweb. This page focuses on phycotoxins produced by marine microalgae; however, freshwater algae and...
shifting baselines in 1995 and authored the seminal paper, Fishing down marinefoodwebs, in 1998. For working to protect the environment, he earned a place...
condiments, beverages, foods for nutritional uses, food additives, composite dishes and savoury snacks. In a given ecosystem, food forms a web of interlocking...
predators, including larger fish, seabirds and marine mammals. Typical ocean forage fish feed near the base of the food chain on plankton, often by filter feeding...
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