Food Web Coral Reef Food Chain
In each food web there are several trophic levels.
Food web coral reef food chain. Crabs sea urchins and sponges all feed on algae. What are the intermediate consumers in the coral reef food web illustration. So do some sea turtles parrot fish and surgeon. This starts with the photosynthetic organisms such as seaweed and zooxanthellae algae.
Well learn what a food web is and what coral reefs are and also take a look at a couple of specific examples of coral reef food webs. The size of a population can determine how much competition there is between two species that share a food supply. A food web is a system of interlocking and interdependent food chains. A food web is basically the collection of all the food chains in a single ecosystem.
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in the food chain. The coral reef food web is an important part of what makes coral reefs tick consisting of the major food chains and trophic levels associated with the diverse marine life that reefs are home to. Population and competition can effect each other very much. The small fish would grow in population and there would be less and less food for them to consume.
Primary producers primary consumers secondary consumers and tertiary consumers. A highly diverse ecosystem such as that of a coral reef has a naturally larger more comprehensive food web. If the primary consumers of algae are missing a reef becomes overrun with algae and is not healthy. Most food chains in the mesoamerican coral reef run in similar ways starting with he sun and ending with a third level carnivore.
Answer the intermediate consumers are the sergeant major flaming tongue snail bar jack grouper caribbean lobster bicolor damselfish polychaete worm cushion sea star and southern stingray. For a coral reef to stay healthy it needs inhabitants from each level of the food web. In these relationships it could be beneficially or harmful to the one or two of the organisms. These trophic levels include.
This lesson covers the food web and ecosystem of coral reefs. When two species are in a symbiotic relationships one of the organism relies on the other to live or for food.