Food Chain in Sea

All plants and animals in nature are dependent upon one another. They need each other : the one is food for the other. During the process of photosynthesis, plants build up their biomass with the help of sunlight and elementary building materials. This is called primary producer. Everything which follows is called secondary production (Secondary Consumer). This process is called food chain. A food chain is the sequence of who eats whom in a biological community (an ecosystem) to obtain nutrition.

At the figure above, sun is energy for the primary producer like phytoplankton. The primary producer is phytoplankton, they are microscopically small plants. Phytoplankton is primary producer because they makes their own food from the sun taken by photosyntesis or chemosynthesis. They float around in the water, taking in a number of elementary building

materials, and grow with the help of sunlight. In coastal regins, the water is so shallow that the sun rays easily reach the bottom of the sea. This is also where phytoplankton grows on the bottom and benthic fauna can forage on these plants. Phytoplankton is consumed by the (floating) zooplankton. Zooplankton is primary consumer. This animal plankton is food for small fish, such as lesser sandeel. Small fish called secondary consumer. Otter eat small fish in this food chain, so otter is tertiary consumer. Larger predator shark eat the otter. Then the death animals, like shark will eaten by the scavengers (starfish, crabs, shrimp) and the biodegraders (moulds and bacteria). The degraders convert the biomass into elementary nutrients for the phytoplankton and the algae and seaweed called process decomposers. This circuit is back to the secondary, third, fourth, until the last then back again, and so on. Some materials, such as insecticides, can accumulate in the food chain. This process is called bio-accumulation.

The conclusion :
Primary Producers
y

Primary producers in sea ecosystem include phytoplankton, sea weeds and sea grasses. All of these organisms are photosynthetic organisms that get their energy from the sun.

Primary Consumers
y

The second trophic level in coral reef ecosystems are primary consumers such as zooplankton, coral polyps, sponges, mollusks, sea urchins and smaller fish. These organisms are commonly browsers or filter feeders that eat primary producers.

Secondary Consumers
y

The third trophic level in a coral reef ecosystem are the secondary consumers that eat primary consumers. These organisms typically include larger reef fishes, lobsters and sea turtles.

Tertiary Consumers
y

The fourth trophic level in a coral reef ecosystem are the tertiary consumers that eat secondary consumers. These organisms include carnivores such as otter.

Quaternary consumers
y

Quaternary consumers eat tertiary consumers.These organisms include larger carnivores such as reef sharks. When any organism dies, it is eventually eaten by scavengers (like vultures, worms and crabs) and broken down by decomposers (mostly bacteria and fungi), and the exchange of energy continues.