Phytoplankton are the primary producers of food and oxygen in the Bay, forming the base of the food web. Like all plants, phytoplankton go through photosynthesis, so they need sunlight to live and grow. Therefore, the greatest number of phytoplankton are found near the water’s surface.
What are two decomposers in the Chesapeake Bay?
- BENTHOS (bottom)
- DECOMPOSERS: Bacteria, worms,
- Others: benthic diatoms.
What eats phytoplankton in the Chesapeake Bay?
Phytoplankton are then are eaten by copepods, which are members of the microscopic animal community called zooplankton. Copepods are eaten by bay anchovies, which are eaten by large fish such as bluefish and striped bass. These large fish can then be harvested and eaten by humans.
What are producers?
A producer is someone who creates and supplies goods or services. Producers combine labor and capital—called factor inputs—to create—that is, to output—something else. Business firms are the main examples of producers and are usually what economists have in mind when talking about producers.
What is the most important organism in the Chesapeake Bay?
The five species listed below are among the most important forage species to the Bay’s ecosystem and history.
- Bay anchovy (Anchoa mitchilli) Photo by Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
- Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus)
- Bristle worms (Polychaeta)
- Mysids (Mysidae)
- American shad (Alosa sapidissima)
Is algae a producer?
Like their aquatic and terrestrial plant relatives, algae are primary producers, known as autotrophs. Autotrophs convert water and carbon dioxide to sugar (food) in the presence of sunlight.
Are oysters producers or consumers?
primary consumer
Oysters (ecosystem engineer, primary consumer) 4. Detritus (dead, organic material) 5. Plankton (can be producers or consumers) 6. Bass, sand eels, cuttlefish (consumers) 7.
Is phytoplankton a producer?
Phytoplankton are the tiny, plant-like producers of the plankton community. They include bacteria and algae that form the base of aquatic food webs.
What eats algae in Chesapeake Bay?
Oysters and clams filter algae out of the water. This helps to keep the Bay clean. But it also helps to turn algae into food that bigger animals can eat. Small animals called zooplankton, which include tiny crustaceans known as copepods, are the Bay’s grazers.
Is plankton a fish or plant?
Phytoplankton are microscopic plants, but they play a huge role in the marine food web. Like plants on land, phytoplankton perform photosynthesis to convert the sun’s rays into energy to support them, and they take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
What are 5 producers?
What Are Producers in a Food Web?
- Plants. One example of producers found in food chains include plants.
- Protists. While plants are a common producer on land, in a marine setting, you might find protists as producers.
- Bacteria.
- Primary Consumers.
- Secondary Consumers.
- Tertiary Consumers.
What are 5 examples of producers?
Some examples of producers in the food chain include green plants, small shrubs, fruit, phytoplankton, and algae.
What are 2 producers?
Types of Producers
There are two major types of primary producers – phototrophs and chemotrophs. Phototrophs use the energy from the sun to convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates.
What food is the Chesapeake Bay known for?
The most famous denizen of the Chesapeake Bay is the Maryland blue crab. Its sweet, ocean flavor and remarkable versatility make it one of the most prized crabs in the world, and we have a whole line of offerings that use blue crab in all sorts of imaginative ways.
What are some plants that live in the Chesapeake Bay?
Five of the most common are wild celery, found in freshwater; sago pondweed, redhead grass, and widgeon grass found in more estuarine water; and eelgrass found in the lower Bay in saltier water. Salinity, water depth, and bottom sediment determine where each species can grow.
What plants and animals live in the Chesapeake Bay?
The Bay provides small fish, salamanders, frogs, snakes, lizards, shellfish, rodents and many insects for the herons to feast upon. Chesapeake Bay and its watershed support more than 3,600 species of plants, fish and animals. 2,700 species of plants alone live in the Chesapeake Bay area.
Is fish a producer?
In aquatic ecosystems fish are often the organisms at the top of the food chain. They are often the secondary and tertiary consumers. The producers in an aquatic ecosystem are algae and aquatic plants. These producers are consumed by the primary consumers, which are often small fish and aquatic macroinvertebrates.
Is a tree a producer?
Producers are any kind of green plant. Green plants make their food by taking sunlight and using the energy to make sugar. The plant uses this sugar, also called glucose to make many things, such as wood, leaves, roots, and bark. Trees, such as they mighty Oak, and the grand American Beech, are examples of producers.
Is grass a producer?
Grass produces its own food through photosynthesis. It is a primary producer at the bottom of the food chain. Primary producers are the 1st trophic level.
Is krill a producer?
In the Antarctic food chain krill are primary consumers and baleen whales, penguins, seals and many kinds of fish and other birds are secondary consumers when feeding on krill. Many animals are a mixture of primary, secondary, tertiary (3rd) and quaternary (4th) consumers as they eat a variety of prey.
Is a bacteria a producer?
Fungi and bacteria are the most common decomposers. A producer is a living thing that makes its own food from sunlight, air, and soil. Green plants are producers who make food in their leaves. A consumer is a living thing that cannot make its own food.