Describe the open-ocean planktonic food chain, and elaborate on why its supports few large animals

What will be an ideal response?


The nutrient-poor open ocean food chain starts with cyanobacteria and nanoplankton. They are consumed by microzooplankton that include foraminiferans and radiolarians which in turn are consumed by copepods. The copepods are preyed on by krill, shrimp, and small fish. These medium-sized animals are fed on by squid, larger fish, and whales. Each step represents a tropic level with a 10 percent efficiency. Larger fish are often five to six steps removed from the nutrient limited phytoplankton. At the fifth level only 0.00001 of the original biomass remains.

Biology & Microbiology

You might also like to view...

A closed-circular DNA in its relaxed form has a linking number (Lk) of 500 . What will happen to the linking number of this molecule if one of the strands is broken?

A. Lk will increase. B. Lk will decrease. C. Lk will stay the same. D. Lk becomes undefined. E. None of these choices is correct.

Biology & Microbiology

Which of the following is one of the best examples of a commonly shared signaling pathway

connected to memory in invertebrates and vertebrates?

a. Cyclic AMP. b. Cycling RNA c. RNA cyclase. d. RNA binding protein e. non-responsive binding protein

Biology & Microbiology

In the human pulmonary circuit, blood passes through which of the following?

a. liver b. limbs c. lungs d. digestive organs e. brain

Biology & Microbiology

All of the following are granulocytes except ________.

A. lymphocytes B. neutrophils C. basophils D. eosinophils E. All of the choices are granulocytes.

Biology & Microbiology