Relationships Among Marine Organisms

      

Marine Food Web:
         During this assignment, my animal was a Penguin. The penguin doesn't really have that many predators, but they eat different organisms to survive. The animal that is it's major predator is the seal. The organisms that the penguins consume are Squids and Anchovies. If the penguins were taken out of the Marine Ecosystem, it perhaps would not change much except more of an abundance of Anchovies and Squids to be eaten by the other organisms. The predator of the penguin also eats different organisms so it most likely would not be a huge deal in the system. The penguins are almost invisible. If the bottom of the food chain organisms were extinct then the other organisms would have a really tough time trying to survive and it would corrupt the entire system. The food chain would crumble and some of the organisms would end up becoming extinct as well. If phytoplankton was to become extinct then the other organisms would be affected majorly because they are the main source of food in the ecosystem. The whole ecosystem would change if some of the organisms were to become extinct.

Phytoplankton:
      This organism is so important to the food web because its the base food supply for most of the organisms in the ecosystem. Each organism has its source of food but most of them root back to the phytoplankton. Organisms would become extinct without it and would mess up the order of the ecosystem. More than 99 percent of the organisms in the ocean are microscopic phytoplankton floating in the upper 100 feet of water. These organisms are made up of thousands of different species in which is known as a diatom. In the neuston system there are zooplankton, meroplankton, and holoplankton.

Diatoms are minerals that depend on sunlight for energy to preform photosynthesis and nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. Nutrients are brought to the surface during springtime upwellings. These diatoms are seasonal in their variations in distributions and abundances. They easily adapt to life in open waters and they stay at the surfaces in order to collect all the sunlight. Diatoms aren't the only plankton in the sea. Some of them have spines and ragged edges or oil for buoyancy.
      The diatomaceous earth are soils that contain diatoms or their fossils.
      The reflection of light is caused by the silica reflections on sand.
      Diatoms are useful for reflective paint because of their glittery shells and because of their silica.
      Diatoms are useful for pool cleaning- Diatomic Earth