Detailed Coral Reef Food Web

This paper presents reconstructions of coral reef food webs in three greater antillean regions of the caribbean.

Detailed coral reef food web. Then read about the different trophic levelsof a typical food chain below. The reef volunteer fish survey project dataset is one of several used to construct the food webs. This study considers coral reef systems in three national. Coral reef food web activity to understand the coral reef food web first read about the coral reefbiomeusing this link.

It is this food web that makes the great barrier reef what it is and is an example of why the influence of man is one of the main threats to the future of the reef and its continued survival as the world s largest living organism. The cayman islands cuba and jamaica 1. Detailed food web networks of three greater antillean coral reef systems. Coral reef communities of the greater antilles of the caribbean sea have a long history of.

The primary consumers the coral sea turtle and fish. The secondary consumers the sharks anemones starfish baracuda jellyfish sea snakes and sea slugs. Click the image to view it in full size. The fan worm is eaten by the tertiary consumer the puffer fish.

The trophic level is the position that an organism plant or animal occupies in a food chain what it eats and what eats it. Similarly a single organism can serve more than one role in a food web. Larger fish rays and octopi are the secondary. Abalone dugongs and sea urchins are primary consumers in the great barrier reef and more generally in coral reefs.

The producers the phytoplankton on the ocean s surface. Primary consumers are animals that eat primary producers also known as herbivores plant eaters. Zooplankton sponges smaller fish and coral polyps. Producers make up the first trophic level.

Seagrass phytoplankton and seaweeds are the producers. Finally the angelfish the blue chromis and the butterfly fish are all consumed by the tertiary consumer the reef shark. Food webs consist of different organism groupings called trophic levels. See if you can identify all the parts of the food web that make this a functioning healthy ecosystem.

The coral polyps are eaten by a tertiary consumer the sea slug. The cayman islands cuba and jamaica. The sea sponge is eaten by the angelfish. In this example of a coral reef there are producers consumers and decomposers.