If it Photosynthesizes and produces Carbohydrates  what is it called

Primary Producers

Primary Producers

• They are how the Biospere gets almost all of its energy
• Total energy  brought by Primary Producers dictates how much life can exist in the Biosphere(the ecosystem comprising the entire earth and the living organisms that inhabit it.)
• Scientist measure Primary Productivity in the terms of Carbon bound into organic material.

Carbohydrates

C02-H20=Food or Energy

• Unit to measure Carbohydrates is grams of c per square meter of surface area per year
• Oceans Primary Productivity averages from 75 to 150 grams c/m squared per year.
• little lower than on land
• Terrestrial Productivity 50-70 billion tons c/year
• From all marine ecosystems is 35 to 50 Billion tons/year
• How much productivity depends on how much food is produced.

Plankton

• Vital to Primary productivity
• Includes many species from nearly every major group of organisms
• Some organismsm start life out as Plankton then leave Plankton Community when big enough to swim.EX:Meroplankton
• Some live there whole lives as Plankton           Ex: Holoplankton
• Plankton accounts for 92-96% of the Oceans Primary Productivity.                                                 

4 Important types of Plankton

• Diatoms: Most efficient Photosynthesizers known                                                            - Thousands of species benthic and planktonic -Characterized byridged cellwall called frustule -Frustule made of silca so like letting light in through glass.
• Dinoflagellates: Characterized by one or two whip like flagella used to change orientation -Important to coral reef community  -Reproduce rapidly, responsible for plankton blooms(large numbers of phytoplankton are concentrated in one area, the color of the water surface changes.) Plankton blooms can cause redtide.
• Coccolithophores- Characterized by shells of calcium carbonate.                                  -Shells are called cocoliths.                       -Live in brightly lit shallow water.         -Translucent Coccolithophores(clear; transparent)protect them by screening the light                                                          -Area with high concentrations  may appear milky.
• Silcoflagellates: Characterized by internal supporting structures made of silca             -More primaitve than diatoms                      -Little is know about their distribution or abundance.