What is the base of the marine food web?

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The basic energy source for the marine food web is the tiny, sun-powered producers in the water. Phytoplankton, the photosynthesizing part of plankton, capture sunlight and convert nutrients into organic matter that fuels virtually every other organism in the ocean. This makes plankton the starting point for energy flow: zooplankton feed on phytoplankton, small fish eat the zooplankton, larger fish and many marine animals rely on those smaller creatures, and seabirds ultimately trace their energy back to plankton through the food chain. Kelp forests are important coastal producers and support local webs, but they don’t provide the base for the entire marine system in the same broad way that plankton do. Corals and seabirds are higher up the chain or rely on energy that originates with plankton, not the base itself. So the base of the marine food web is plankton.