2.1a Food Webs

Types of food webs - interactive, functional, energy flow, connectedness

More advanced types of food web dynamic analyses

Example of a reef food web

Corallivores

• Parrotfish

• Bioeroders like mollusks, annelids, flatworms and echinoderms

Herbivorous fishes (functional groups based on feeding behavior)

• croppers (e.g., surgeonfish: Acanthuridae),

• browsers (e.g., chubs: Kyphosidae),

• scrapers

• excavators (e.g., parrotfish: Labridae)

• farmers (e.g. damselfish)

Non-fish Herbivores

• Invertebrates - urchins (see above), crabs, limpets, chitons, and polychaete worms

• Vertebrates - Sea turtles, dugongs,