What do plankton eat?

Question

Plankton are said to be the base of the food chain, but if so, what to they eat? Wouldn't THAT be the base of the food chain?

Answer 1

Mostly plankton.

Answer 2

Phytoplankton uses photosynthesis to obtain energy. Zooplankton eats other plankton. So, the base of the food chain? Sunlight, of course!

Even the primary producers of terrestrial organisms use sunlight to sustain its life.

Answer 3

They all need to eat some form of carbon

and some form of nitrogen from their environment to survive.

This means that they use CO2 to produce the

sugars and starches they need to survive (photosynthesis).  They absorb from the water around them trace minerals, phosphates, nitrates, and sulfates.  

Some plankton eat bacteria.  It all depends on the plankton type.  I think some plankton eat other plankton.

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oct...

Answer 4

it depends what type.. many are photosynthetic, some heterotrophic, and many are larval stages or eggs of larger animals..

plankton isn't just once species of creature..

things lise these (imagine little seimming bugs) http://www.sjteach.org/zooplankton05.jpg

will eat guys like this (single celled algea etc) http://sherpaguides.com/georgia/barrier_...

Answer 5

Phytoplankton ( Mostly autotrophic microscopic algae) are photosynthetic producers and are at the base of the food web/chain and zooplankton (primary consumers) feed on the phytoplankton.

Answer 6

Plankton as a category crosses Kingdom boundaries and includes prokaryotic (bacteria) and eukaryotic organisms. The cyanobacteria are autotrophs using sunlight for energy but other bacteria engulf food for energy so are heterotrophs but all are part of the plankton community. These are in turn consumed by many types of protozoa.  

Protozoa species eat each other, bacteria or algae. The algae are the main autotrophic group of Kingdom protista and make up part of the phytoplankton along with cyanobacteria.

Krill & copepods are members of the animal Kingdom. Other animals are only part of the plankton as juveniles but combine with protozoa and other heterotrophs as part of the zooplankton.

This is why it is called a food web since it gets very complicated following relationships among the microscopic organisms in general called plankton.