The extinction of key species could have cascading effects throughout the food web.
Phytoplankton productivity is the base of the food web, and all life in the sea depends on it.
Phytoplankton are the foundation of the aquatic food web, the primary producers, feeding everything from microscopic, animal-like zooplankton to multi-ton whales.
The complexity of the food web is thus greatly simplified.
As these creatures continue to arrive in great Numbers, said Goldstein, they might be altering the ocean's food web.
At the same time, the surface slick is blocking sunlight needed to sustain plant-like phytoplankton, which under normal circumstances would be at the base of the food web.
Since corals provide habitat and food sources for many other denizens of the deep, this could have a profound effect on the Marine food web.
“What’s wonderful about looking at the past is the long lens of geological history,” said Whiteside. “There is evidence that food web collapse is starting to occur in some marine ecosystems.
This is, after all, what is happening in other places, though usually the changes start at the apex of the food web.
Use the showing function of red spider to show students' understanding of food chain and food web.
Those transfers included parasites, which cause rashes, and the Asian clam, which altered the entire food web in San Francisco Bay.
