apex consumer

Examples of apex consumer in the following topics:

• Biological Magnification

  • One of the most important environmental consequences of ecosystem dynamics is biomagnification: the increasing concentration of persistent, toxic substances in organisms at each trophic level, from the primary producers to the apex consumers.
  • In some aquatic ecosystems, organisms from each trophic level consumed many organisms of the lower level, which caused DDT to increase in birds (apex consumers) that ate fish.
  • The apex consumer (walleye) had more than four times the amount of PCBs compared to phytoplankton.
  • The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends that pregnant women and young children should not consume any swordfish, shark, king mackerel, or tilefish because of their high mercury content.

• Food Chains and Food Webs

  • The organisms that consume the primary producers are herbivores: the primary consumers.
  • Secondary consumers are usually carnivores that eat the primary consumers, while tertiary consumers are carnivores that eat other carnivores.
  • Higher-level consumers feed on the next lower trophic levels, and so on, up to the organisms at the top of the food chain, which are called the apex consumers.
  • Primary producers are outlined in green, primary consumers in orange, secondary consumers in blue, and tertiary (apex) consumers in purple.
  • The opossum shrimp eats both primary producers and primary consumers; it is, therefore, both a primary consumer and a secondary consumer.

• Transferring of Energy between Trophic Levels

  • In the Lake Ontario ecosystem food web, only three energy transfers occurred between the primary producer (green algae) and the tertiary, or apex, consumer (Chinook salmon) .
  • Incomplete ingestion refers to the fact that some consumers eat only a part of their food.
  • Primary producers are outlined in green, primary consumers in orange, secondary consumers in blue, and tertiary (apex) consumers in purple.
  • Arrows point from an organism that is consumed to the organism that consumes it.
  • For example, the opossum shrimp eats both primary producers and primary consumers.

• Functions of Stems

  • The apex (tip) of the shoot contains the apical meristem within the apical bud.

• The Cardiac Cycle

  • Finally, the Purkinje fibers conduct the impulse from the apex of the heart up the ventricular myocardium, causing the ventricles to contract.
  • The signal is (b) delayed at the atrioventricular node before it is passed on to the (c) heart apex.

• Transduction of Sound

  • The mechanical properties of the basilar membrane change along its length, such that it is thicker, tauter, and narrower at the outside of the whorl (where the cochlea is largest), and thinner, floppier, and broader toward the apex, or center, of the whorl (where the cochlea is smallest).
  • The basilar membrane that lines the cochlea gets continuously thinner toward the apex of the cochlea.

• Overharvesting

  • Overexploitation of species can also result in cascade effects, particularly if a habitat loses its apex predator.

• The Energy Cycle

  • Photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen.
  • Aerobic respiration consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide.
  • Photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide and produces oxygen.
  • Aerobic respiration consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide.

• Digestive Systems

  • Animals use the organs of their digestive systems to extract important nutrients from food they consume, which can later be absorbed.
  • The food consumed consists of protein, fat, and complex carbohydrates , but the requirements of each are different for each animal.
  • The conversion of the food consumed to the nutrients required is a multi-step process involving digestion and absorption.

• Ecological Pyramids

  • However, during the summer in a temperate forest, the base of the pyramid consists of few trees compared with the number of primary consumers, mostly insects.
  • However, the phytoplankton in the English Channel example make up less biomass than the primary consumers, the zooplankton.
  • The phytoplankton are consumed rapidly by the primary consumers, which minimizes their biomass at any particular point in time.