What animal is a decomposer in the ocean?

What animal is a decomposer in the ocean?

Other sea creatures classified as decomposers include crustaceans and mollusks, bacteria, fungi, sea cucumbers, starfish, sea urchins, and other kinds of marine worms.

What eats detritus in the ocean?

The primary beneficiaries of detritus are bottom-dwelling invertebrates, including basket stars, tunicates, bottom-dwelling shrimp, a variety of clams, sand dollars, and worms. The species that consume these are sea stars, predatory gastropods, and bottom-dwelling fish in the case shown in Figure 5.

What is a decomposer in an ocean food web?

Overall, the main decomposer organisms in marine ecosystems are bacteria. Other important decomposers are fungi, marine worms, echinoderms, crustaceans and mollusks. In the colder ocean waters, only bacteria and fungi do the decomposing because the other creatures cannot survive in the extreme conditions.

What is a decomposer in an aquatic ecosystem?

Decomposers. Decomposers, which include bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms, are the other major group in the food web. They feed on the remains of all aquatic organisms and in so doing break down or decay organic matter, returning it to an inorganic state.

What animals eat bacteria in the ocean?

In the sea, filter-feeding animals like fan worms and shellfish can suck bacteria out of the water. There are even species of snail that float around in the water trailing big transparent nets of fine mucus, to trap bacteria and other organisms.

What bacteria live in the ocean?

MARINE BACTERIA

  • MARINE BACTERIA THAT “FIX” NITROGEN.
  • Trichodesmium. Microphotograph by Angel White, Oregon State University.
  • Heterocystus cyanobacteria.
  • Crocosphaera.
  • Uncultivated cyanobacteria group A (UCYN-A)
  • Alphaproteobacteria and gammaproteobacteria.
  • Ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB)
  • Nitrite oxidizing bacteria.

What are ocean food webs?

Most marine species are tied together through the food web. A food web is a system of interconnected food chains. A food chain is a top-to-bottom set of animals and plants. They are linked to each other because those on top eat those below.

What do ocean omnivores eat?

Omnivores in the Ocean

  • blue crabs – consume plants, algae and dead fish.
  • bonnethead sharks – like to munch on seagrass and smaller aquatic animals.
  • flatback, hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles – eat sea cucumbers, corals, seaweed, and fish.
  • saltwater crabs and lobsters – aquatic plants, mollusks and algae.