Is a rotifer an autotroph or heterotroph?

About 10–40 per cent of rotifers' food can consist of heterotrophic organisms of the microbial web. ... Rotifers provide degraded algae, bacteria and protozoans to the microbial web and may promote microbial activity.

1. Is a rotifer a decomposer?
2. Is a rotifer a protist?
3. How does a rotifer feed?
4. Is Rotifera genus?
5. Are rotifers Protostomes or Deuterostomes?
6. Is a Rotifera primary or secondary consumer?
7. Is rotifers a primary consumer?
8. Are rotifers bacteria?
9. Is a Rotifera secondary consumer?
10. Are rotifers motile or sessile?
11. What does the word rotifer mean?
12. What type of microorganism is rotifer?
13. Do rotifers have circulatory systems?
14. Is Rotifera phytoplankton?

Is a rotifer a decomposer?

There are larger physical decomposers:

Mites, centipedes, sow bugs, snails, millipedes, springtails, spiders, slugs, beetles, ants, flies, nematodes, flatworms, rotifers, and earthworms. These grind, suck and chew materials into smaller pieces.

Is a rotifer a protist?

Although rotifers are multicellular creatures, they make their living at the scale of unicellular protists. Most species of rotifers are about 200 to 500 μm long.

How does a rotifer feed?

Rotifers obtain food that is directed toward the mouth by the current created from the movement of the corona. The food particles enter the mouth and travel to the mastax (pharynx with jaw-like structures). Food then passes by digestive and salivary glands, and into the stomach, then onto the intestines.

Is Rotifera genus?

About 2200 species of rotifers have been described. Their taxonomy is currently in a state of flux. ... There are only two known genera with three species of Seisonidea. The Acanthocephala, previously considered to be a separate phylum, have been demonstrated to be modified rotifers.

Are rotifers Protostomes or Deuterostomes?

The two clades diverged about 600 million years ago. Protostomes evolved into over a million species alive today, compared to about 60,000 deuterostome species. Protostomes are divided into the Ecdysozoa (e.g. arthropods, nematodes) and the Spiralia (e.g. molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths, and rotifers).

Is a Rotifera primary or secondary consumer?

The diet of rotifers consists of matter small enough to fit through their tiny mouths during filter feeding. They are primarily omnivorous primary consumers of small microorganisms and suspended organic matter, but some species have been known to be cannibalistic.

Is rotifers a primary consumer?

The diet of rotifers most commonly consists of dead or decomposing organic materials, as well as unicellular algae and other phytoplankton that are primary producers in aquatic communities. Such feeding habits make some rotifers primary consumers.

Are rotifers bacteria?

Although the culture-dependent method indicated the bacterial community of rotifers was relatively similar to that of the culture water, 16S rRNA gene clone library analyses revealed a great difference between the two microbiotas.

Is a Rotifera secondary consumer?

This level includes both herbivores and carnivores: nematodes, protozoa, rotifers, soil flatworms, springtails, some types of mites, and feather-winged beetles.

Are rotifers motile or sessile?

Most rotifers are free-moving, either swimming as members of the plankton or crawling over plants or within the sediments; however, some sessile species live permanently attached to freshwater plants (Wallace, 1980).

What does the word rotifer mean?

Definition of rotifer

: any of a class (Rotifera of the phylum Aschelminthes) of minute usually microscopic but many-celled chiefly freshwater aquatic invertebrates having the anterior end modified into a retractile disk bearing circles of strong cilia that often give the appearance of rapidly revolving wheels.

What type of microorganism is rotifer?

rotifer, also called wheel animalcule, any of the approximately 2,000 species of microscopic, aquatic invertebrates that constitute the phylum Rotifera. Rotifers are so named because the circular arrangement of moving cilia (tiny hairlike structures) at the front end resembles a rotating wheel.

Do rotifers have circulatory systems?

The circulatory system varies from simple systems in invertebrates to more complex systems in vertebrates. The simplest animals, such as the sponges (Porifera) and rotifers (Rotifera), do not need a circulatory system because diffusion allows adequate exchange of water, nutrients, and waste, as well as dissolved gases.

Is Rotifera phytoplankton?

Rotifers are an important component of plankton in aquatic environments and a link in energy flow¹.