Coral Reef Food Web

Coral is a primary consumer.

Coral reef food web. The role that coral plays is that it provides species food and shelter. Below is a visual diagram style representation of the food web of the great barrier reef featuring some of the core marine animals that can be found in its waters that provides a basic overview with the arrows pointing in the direction of one animal that eats another. See if you can identify all the parts of the food web that make this a functioning healthy ecosystem. Fishes and other organisms shelter find food reproduce and rear their young in the many nooks and crannies formed by corals.

Similarly a single organism can serve more than one role in a food web. Producers make up the first trophic level. The food webs are a very important factor in the safeguard of the coral reef ecosystem. Zooplankton sponges smaller fish and coral polyps.

Abalone dugongs and sea urchins are primary consumers in the great barrier reef and more generally in coral reefs. Coral eats tiny algae zooxanthettae small fish squid and all types of plankton. 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. In this example of a coral reef there are producers consumers and decomposers.

Seagrass phytoplankton and seaweeds are the producers. There are just the right amount of predators and prey within the aforementioned trophic levels. Food webs consist of different organism groupings called trophic levels. For example a queen conch can be both a consumer and a detritivore or decomposer.

The northwest hawaiian island coral reefs which are part of the papahānaumokuākea national marine monument provide an example of the diversity of life associated with shallow water reef ecosystems. The primary consumers the coral sea turtle and fish. Larger fish rays and octopi are the secondary. The secondary consumers the sharks anemones starfish baracuda jellyfish sea snakes and sea slugs.

Food webs protect the fragile balance there is between species. This is a coral reef food web. A food web is basically the collection of all the food chains in a single ecosystem. This area supports more than 7 000 species of fishes invertebrates plants sea turtles birds and marine mammals.

Primary consumers like clams shrimp zooplankton and small fish eat the producers. It is eaten by all kinds of parrot fish because when the fish is trying to take the algae off the coral it eats that while taking off algae.