After low tide, countless small puddles will form in the intertidal zone of the reef coast, which will be isolated from the sea and become independent small worlds. Compared to the dangerous sea, this place is very safe and is an ideal place for small creatures to hide and avoid danger. However, the temperature and salinity here change quickly and radically, and various small organisms require strong adaptive capacity to survive. If low tide occurs at midday, water temperatures in intertidal reef nests can reach over 30 degrees, and larger ponds are little better. At this time, all living creatures must hibernate to avoid the scorching sun. It's much livelier when it's cooler.
Intertidal ponds with lots of sunlight and low water flow are a haven for phytoplankton. Diatoms, algae and mores algae proliferate in large numbers, forming the oxygen pump and food base of this micro biosphere. Shellfish, echinoderms and coelenterates are the most common intertidal animals. Oysters attached to the reef open their mouths slightly to filter seawater, while barnacles and sea anemones extend their tentacles and load plankton invisible to the naked eye into the middle mouth. Whether these animals fixed on the rocks can feast depends on luck. I once saw a small seahorse that died from high temperature, was caught by a sea anemone and dragged into its mouth, leaving only its curly tail exposed. For sea anemones, it’s a blessing from heaven. There are fewer starfish and sea urchins. From my observation, they seem to be carried by waves to these intertidal ponds only when they are injured.
Small crustaceans frequently visit intertidal ponds,just like various snails. Transparent shrimp like to hide under algae leaves and feed on algae with slow movements; the crabs like to search the bottom of the pond one by one, sweeping up tiny debris; swim quickly; All kinds of snails are not picky about their food and will eat whatever they find. These energetic ocean scavengers never give up any energy and are an important part of this small ecosystem.
On the other hand, the fish here are very lazy. In addition to small tide-trapped fish, the resident fish of the intertidal zone are mostly lazy sea catfish. Locals call them “Lengbaer”, and there is also one called “donkey tail”. These juvenile fish, which measure only a few centimeters long, are already considered "apex predators" in small intertidal ponds. With their flat body andPerfect protective coloration, they blend into the brown reef and are difficult to spot. Once a small fish or shrimp passes nearby, they strike with lightning speed and quickly open their "big mouth" to suck the prey into their mouth.
Um... wrong
After a few hours, the nutrients in the small biosphere were almost exhausted, and the temperature and salinity were close to the animal limits. But don't worry, rising waters will soon turn tidal ponds into part of the ocean. It would also bring new foods, more comfortable temperatures and salinity, fierce predators and perhaps new residents. Permanent residents of intertidal ponds squeeze into stone crevices and safe masses of algae, waiting for the next low tide and looking forward to the next feast.
Marine food chain marine food chaine
In the seaIn the marine biological community, from plants, bacteria or organic matter, through herbivorous animals to carnivorous animals at all levels, the nutritional relationship between eaters and The eaten forms in sequence, the so-called food chain, also known as the "trophic chain". The food web is the expansion and complexity of the food chain. It represents the complex network of nutritional relationships formed when the nutritional levels of various organisms change. The conversion and flow of matter and energy through various links in the marine food chain and food web is a fundamental process of material circulation and energy flow in the marine ecosystem.
trophic level Marine phytoplankton and benthic plants are the most important primary producers. They are herbivores, like cplanktonic rustaceans like Gammarus and Calanus, molluscs like Ruditapes and Haliotis, Muil cephalus and Chanos Wait for fish and provide food. Herbivores are consumed by first-level carnivores, such as jellyfish (Rhopilema), arrow worms (Saitta), starfish, shrimp (Penaeus), many fish, baleen whales (Balaenoptera), etc. Primary carnivores are in turn eaten by secondary carnivores (large fish and macroinvertebrates). They are then consumed by tertiary carnivores (fierce fish and mammals). On this basis, a food chain is formed and each level of biological groups in the food chain is called a trophic level.
Category Marine plants, the main producers of the ocean, are not directly eaten by herbivores, but are broken down into debris by bacteria after their death, then used by certain animals. So, everythingAs on land and in fresh water, there are two basic food chains that run parallel and transform into each other in the marine ecosystem: one is the herbivorous food chain from phytoplankton and benthic plants , and the other is the herbivorous food chain. food chain from phytoplankton and benthic plants. Classes are detrital food chains from detritus.
In addition to non-living organic matter in the ocean in the form of detritus, there is also a large amount of dissolved organic matter, which is several times greater than detrital organic matter. Under certain conditions, they can form aggregates and become detrital organic matter, usable by certain animals. Therefore, in the material cycle and energy flow of marine ecosystems, the role of the detrital food chain is not necessarily less than that of chherbivorous food source.
In addition, there is a scavenger food chain in the sea. It starts from saprophytic bacteria and bacteria that synthesize chemical energy, and it also plays a certain role in the marine ecosystem.
Characteristics The marine food chain is relatively long, often reaching levels 4 to 5. Terrestrial food chains generally only have levels 2 to 3 and rarely reach levels 4 to 5. Many links of the marine food chain are reversible and multibranched. In addition, the detrital food chain, the herbivorous food chain and the detrital food chain are closely related, and the network-like trophic relationships are more diverse and complex than those on land. Therefore, the use of food webs in the ocean can more accurately express the nutritional relationships among marine organisms.
Material transfere and energyThe food chain only represents the transfer and direction of flow of organic matter and energy from one organism to another, but does not represent the amount of organic matter and energy (i.e. (ie biomass and heat) required at each trophic level. The importance of these quantities depends on the real efficiency of use of the food ingested by the different feeders, or in other words, on the efficiency of the conversion of the food ingested towards the feeder. It can be seen from the figure [Food chain conversion efficiency diagram] that the conversion efficiency when krill is eaten is close to 10%, when it is eaten by krill, it is about 7 %, and when eaten by mackerel it is about 4%. This shows that the same bait has different conversion efficiencies due to different feeders. Second, the effectiveness of rays in feeding krillis around 4%. If there are intermediate links, the flow of the krill → ray food chain is almost half an order of magnitude lower.
We see that at each level of the food chain, there will be a large loss of organic matter and energy. The more levels there are in a food chain, the less efficient it is overall. Thus, counting among the primary producers phytoplankton, benthic plants or detritus, the higher the level of the food chain, the smaller the relative number of animals, conversely, the higher the level of the food chain is lower, the greater the relative number of animals; This forms the biomass pyramid and the energy pyramid.
Food web In nature, an organism often feeds on various organisms, and it itself is also eaten by various organisms. Therefore, each organism is found in different links of different food chains.entaries in a maritime area, or at different trophic levels. In this way, the feeding relationships between different organisms throughout the maritime area have become a complex network structure. In fact, the same type of fish also has different foods depending on its stage of development and growth, season and sea area, so the structure of the food web is variable.