Forced to eat in order to ensure their full existence, all the inhabitants of our planet. It can be organic and inorganic food: various types of minerals, gases, plants, animal bodies and their waste products. And the transition of nutrients and energy from one organism to another is called a food chain. But these sequences can vary greatly in different habitats.
On land and in water
To build a food chain for the Black Sea, it is necessary to understand what organisms its links can consist of. Another condition is the living of these creatures in this habitat, no matter which Kingdoms, according to the classification, they belong to.
Some living creatures of nature eat exclusively inorganic food (they are called producers) and take energy for their existence directly from the environment, using gases and minerals. Such producers include various types of algae and microorganisms that live in abundance in the aquatic environment. They begin the food chain of the Black Sea, being the first of the links.
Next in the sequence are consumers of the first and second order, which, in turn, feed on producers and all kinds of animals.
The specifics of the power circuit of this reservoir
The Black Sea food chain has its own characteristics, the main one of which is that below a certain level (150-200 meters) there is an almost dead zone, too saturated with hydrogen sulfide to serve as a normal habitat for organisms. In fact, it is inhabited by serobacteria and some species of algae. And life is mainly concentrated close to the surface, in a shallow coastal zone and on the shallows.
Black Sea and coastal food chain
The main source of organics in this habitat are microscopic algae - phytoplankton. In turn, they serve as food for zooplankton - small crustaceans, larvae, and fish fry. Larger animals feed on zooplankton: fish, jellyfish, crabs. Dolphins stand at the very top, eating the previous members of the chain. And in the coastal zone, the final link is the species of birds that feed on fish. These are gulls, cormorants, petrels, dives.
Examples
The Black Sea food chain may look as follows.
- Phytoplankton - zooplankton - fish - dolphin.
- The simplest types of algae are small crustaceans - fish - birds.
Phytoplankton is widely represented in the water area by at least 600 species, there are 167 species of fish, although the fauna of the Black Sea is poorer than the Mediterranean. Thus, the Black Sea food chain is as complex as terrestrial ecosystems.