Web of Life T e surgeonfish may have interesting eating habits. Yet even their choice of food tells me something. All the organisms here depend on one another for food. It’s how they survive. Together, they form a food web. As they eat one another, they pass energy from organism to organism. T is web of life starts with the sun. It ends


with sharks. Algae use the sun’s energy to make food. T ey are producers. T en a tiny damselfish comes along. It’s a consumer. It nibbles algae. Energy passes to the damselfish. T en a grouper gulps the little fish. So energy passes to the grouper. And when a shark swallows a grouper, energy passes to the shark. In a reef, it sometimes seems like everything


is eating everything. Nothing eats more than the sharks. I’ve seen them herd smaller fish into a big ball. T e fish try to stick together so they look too big to attack. T ey swim like crazy. T ey churn up the surface of the water. T ey can’t get away, though. T e sharks zoom past, snatching fish as they go.


Chain


A spotted hawkfi sh is just one of many colorful fi sh here.


In this food chain, energy passes from the algae to the shark. Many food chains make up a food web.


damselfi sh


grouper


shark SEPTEMBER 2013 7


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