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Cycle of Life
Energy is cycled through the estuarine food web from producers and autotrophs to consumers and decomposers.
Estuaries include plants and animals that contribute to all levels of the food web. Organisms that live in estuaries can be described and grouped based on the role they play in the food web.
In all estuaries, animals and plants rely on each other through the food web. Plants in estuaries are producers. They can also be called autotrophs, a type of producer that makes its energy using sun light through a process called photosynthesis. Producers are important to the productivity of estuaries, because they are the base of the food web. Some bacteria are also important producers. These bacteria, also called decomposers, break down dead animals and plants. They are very important to estuaries because they recycle organic matter and nutrients back into the soil and water. Decomposers work at all levels of the food web. Other living organisms are consumers. Consumers eat producers and other consumers.
Consumers (fish, shorebirds, frogs) may eat one or more kind of plant, insect, fish or small reptile. Larger predators (snakes, hawks, fish) consume small consumers. Populations depend on their prey for energy. If a disturbance occurs in one population level, it may have consequences for the predators of that organism, and for other trophic levels above and below it.
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Last Updated on: 06-24-2008
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