Algae Role In Food Chain

A simple marine food chain might look like the one to the left.

Algae role in food chain. The salmon is the top consumer. Algae form organic food molecules from carbon dioxide and water through the process of photosynthesis in which they capture energy from sunlight. They are grown for animal and aquaculture feeds human foods biochemicals and. Positive aspects of algae are generally less newsworthy they are the basis of marine food webs supporting fisheries and charismatic marine megafauna from albatrosses to whales as well as consuming carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

A more complex marine food web might look like the one to the right. Despite the visual complexity of. The herring are the secondary consumers. And the copepods are the primary consumers.

Fitting algae into the food web note to teachers. Algae s role in the food chain is to be the producer. Similar to land plants algae are at the base of the food chain and given that plants are virtually absent from the oceans the existence of nearly all marine life including whales seals fishes turtles shrimps lobsters clams octopuses sea stars and worms ultimately depends upon. About 70 species of algae are used for food food additives animal feed fertilizers and biochemicals.

The phytoplankton are the producers. Here we consider what algae are their diversity in terms of evolutionary origin size shape and life cycles and their role in the natural environment and in human affairs.