Marine Food Web
The Clam
http://terc.ucdavis.edu/research/aquaticinvasives.html http://nerakahosting.com/category/travel-leisure/
The clam eats bacteria, sand, mud, plants, algae, and particles of detritus. They are eaten by cope pods, birds, many kinds of fish, many sea mammals, and starfish. In a balanced marine ecosystem, the clam is considered a primary consumer among many different kinds of organisms.It is very important for an ecosystem, as one of the clams' most important roles in a balanced marine ecosystem is cleaning up the water. If the clam were to become extinct, it would cause a very large problem, as the clam is at the bottom of the food web, so multiple organisms, including the starfish, sea otters, cope pods, and many other organisms would encounter danger of starvation if they struggle to find other kinds of food to eat besides the clam. Also, the water in the ecosystem would look a lot dirtier, and this could be hazardous for multiple marine ecosystems.
The class activity on January 28th was a very interesting one that I have never experienced before. Each student was given an organism that was on the food web displayed on the smart board. My organism was a clam. After each individual was given one, we went out of the classroom and into the hallway with our string necklaces with the name of our organism on the index card provided by the teacher. The teacher had a large ball of yarn, and she gave us a part of the yarn that she gave to each student and when the teacher was done giving each student a part of the yarn, it looked like a large food web. With the string connecting all of us together, it gave the class a clear idea of what eats our organism and what our organism eats. When we were done with this portion of the activity, we then went back into the classroom and wrote five sentences about what our organism eats and what eats our organism according to the food web that was created out in the hallway. I learned that my organism is eaten by many organisms, and that it is very reliable in many different kinds of food webs, as it is a primary consumer.
Phytoplankton
Phytoplankton is very important to marine food webs for multiple reasons. It is important due to the fact that it is a small plant that is the beginning of many food chains. Also, as they multiply, small fish and a lot of other animals eat them as food, and larger animals will then eat these smaller ones. Organisms that are in neuston ecosystems include diatoms, phytoplankton, and cyanopheliates, and these ecosystems cover 71% of the Earth's surface.
The characteristics of diatoms include that they are microscopic, enclosed by a frustule that is made up of two halves fitted together by a connective zone called a girdle, and they do not have a strong, visible color. Nutrients cause diatoms to reproduce and they have structural adaptations for floating. Diatomaceous earth is soil that contains diatoms or the diatoms' fossils. The reflection of light is because of the ocean's surface.
Energy Flow
What happens to the biomass/energy that is transferred from one trophic level to the next is that some of it is lost as low-grade heat energy to the environment in each transfer. The energy available to each trophic level will always equal the amount entering that trophic level. Other losses of biomass/energy become part of the detritus and may be utilized by other organisms in the ecosystem.
Human Impacts
Humans play a large role in marine food webs. This is because humans are top-level consumers. Also, the pollution humans have done to our world's oceans has made some parts of the oceans less safe, causing some creatures to die and cause consumers of that creature to have trouble finding other food. Human actions can upset the balance of an ecosystem in a variety of ways. This includes the use of fossil fuels, hunting, burning toxins, ocean pollution, deforestation, and electricity production.
