Oceans and Marine Life
The benthos, nekton, and plankton are connected via a food web, a web of complex interrelationships in which one organism consumes another. In most instances, the rule is: The higher up the food web, the larger the predator.
At the base of the food web are the tiny phytoplankton, the primary producers of carbohydrates. At the next level are the zooplankton, which eat the phytoplankton and--next step up--are themselves eaten by small fish, crustaceans, and other marine animals. At the top of the food web are the large predators of the nekton, such as sharks and killer whales. Sponges, crinoids, and certain other animals at the bottom of the sea occupy their own niche in the web, feeding on the broken-down remains of dead organisms and other small food particles raining down from upper waters. And in a reverse process that brings everything full circle, upwellings transport waste products and other animal debris from the bottom to the surface, where they serve as nutrients for the phytoplankton.
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