Is krill a decomposer?

1. Do krill eat producers?
2. What are krill in the food chain?
3. What are krill ecosystem?
4. Is krill a mollusk?
5. Are krill herbivores omnivores or carnivores?
6. Is krill a producer consumer or decomposer?
7. Are krill Autotrophs or Heterotrophs?
8. Is krill a fish or crustacean?
9. Is krill plankton nekton or benthos?
10. Is krill a keystone species?
11. Is zooplankton a decomposer?
12. Is zooplankton a omnivore?
13. Are zooplankton primary consumers?

Do krill eat producers?

Krill feed on phytoplankton, microscopic, single-celled plants that drift near the ocean's surface and live off carbon dioxide and the sun's rays. They in turn are the main staple in the diets of literally hundreds of different animals, from fish, to birds, to baleen whales.

What are krill in the food chain?

NARRATOR: Krill are small crustaceans found throughout the ocean. They play an important role in the aquatic food chain, particularly in the Southern Ocean. Antarctic krill provide a vital food source for whales, seals, ice fish, and penguins.

What are krill ecosystem?

Krill plays the important role of re-packaging vast amounts of primary production into their own body by grazing micro-size phytoplankton to make them available for marine predators. Because of this role they are called the 'keystone species' in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

Is krill a mollusk?

Malacology is the study of the mollusks, including snails and slugs, clams, octopus and squid. Carcinology is the study of crustaceans, a group of arthropods that includes lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, barnacles and crabs.

Are krill herbivores omnivores or carnivores?

Krill are mostly omnivorous, although a few species are carnivorous, preying on small zooplankton and fish larvae. Krill are an important element of the aquatic food chain.

Is krill a producer consumer or decomposer?

In the Antarctic food chain krill are primary consumers and baleen whales, penguins, seals and many kinds of fish and other birds are secondary consumers when feeding on krill. Many animals are a mixture of primary, secondary, tertiary (3rd) and quaternary (4th) consumers as they eat a variety of prey.

Are krill Autotrophs or Heterotrophs?

Zooplankton are heterotrophic, meaning that they need to consume other organisms to gain energy. These include small animals and some single-celled organisms. Krill are amongst the largest and most ecologically important zooplankton and they feed on phytoplankton.

Is krill a fish or crustacean?

Named after a fish, but NOT a fish

Interestingly, the word “krill” is Norwegian and means small fry of fish, but krill are not fish. Krill are small, shrimp-like crustacean with big black eyes and a reddish, semi-transparent body.

Is krill plankton nekton or benthos?

As mentioned above, many large marine animals, such as marlin and tuna, spend the larval stage of their lives as plankton and their adult stage as large and active members of the nekton. Other organisms such as krill are referred to as both micronekton and macrozooplankton.

Is krill a keystone species?

They are important in the food chain because they feed on phytoplankton, and to a lesser extent zooplankton, making nutrients available to other animals for which krill make up the largest part of their diet. For this reason krill are considered a keystone species in the Southern Ocean ecosystem.

Is zooplankton a decomposer?

Plankton also play a role at the end of the food web—as decomposers and detritivores.

Is zooplankton a omnivore?

Zooplankton may be herbivores or plant-eaters (eat phytoplankton), carnivores or meat eaters (eat other zooplankton) or omnivores, which eat both plants and animals (eat phytoplankton and zooplankton).

Are zooplankton primary consumers?

The zooplankton community is composed of both primary consumers, which eat free-floating algae, and secondary consumers, which feed on other zooplankton.