Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass?

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 1

yang to breastfeed, and sailors in the past mistakenly thought that they were mermaids. And in fact, the current species of sliver fish make little difference because they all share a common ancestor.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 2

According to many archaeological and scientific documents proving that there is one thing in common among seagrasses and seagrasses, their ancestors were either angiosperms or mammals. from the mainland and they were all born nearly 150 million years ago. They are all complex species and have more "strong" elements in the evolutionary tree. In other words, their evolution takes more leaps and bounds.

What's even more interesting is that the ancestors of seagrass evolved and moved their habitats from the land to the ocean about 70 million years ago, while the ancestors of the crocodile fish also gradually moved their habitats up close. 60 million years ago, so why are their ancestors all land species and not marine creatures?

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 3

To address this question, the difference between the natural environment of the ocean and the land must be mentioned. But first, let's answer the question: How do creatures that consume the most food size?

If this is a terrestrial animal, it seems that this question is quite difficult to answer clearly, because creatures like aphids are only a few millimeters in size to the largest creature on Earth. now African prairie elephants are all machines that absorb food, but in the past there were dinosaurs more than 20 meters long and donated dozens of tons, when we look back we see they have something in common. - are herbivores, and perhaps plants are the most direct and effective source of energy.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 4

But in the ocean, everything seems completely different, the largest food-consuming creatures are mostly crustaceans with a body length ranging from 1 mm to a few centimeters.

Why is that? Of course, it is necessary to find reasons from food sources. Domestic "food manufacturers" are completely different from the mainland. Land-based "producers" are mostly plants. The largest tree can weigh more than 6000 tons, and the tallest tree can reach nearly 160 meters high. But in the ocean almost all "food manufacturers" are unicellular organisms. Among them, diatoms (silicon algae) produce 20% to 50% of the oxygen on Earth today.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 5

Silicon algae or diatoms are a major group of algae, and one of the most common phytoplankton types. Most diatoms are unicellular, although they can exist in clusters in the form of fine filaments, fans, zigzag, or star shapes. Diatoms are a source of food chains in the ocean.

Diatoms are one of the most common phytoplankton types, they often cluster into communities and range in size from 2 to 200 micrometers, about 90 micrometers in diameter and scattered in water, so large sea animals cannot eat it, because the size of marine animals is so large compared to them that it is difficult to filter and separate them from seawater.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 6

In this way, it is easy to understand that the most effective way of eating large marine creatures is to eat plankton, they eat diatoms and have a very fast reproduction speed, they do not have to suffer any What is the survival pressure because there are so many diatoms in the ocean and each female can lay 1,000 eggs at a time and each year they can provide 200 million tons of food for other marine animals.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 7

So why are the "food manufacturers" in the ocean dominated by unicellular and land-based organisms?

This is because space exists on land, in order to compete for sunlight-inhabited areas, plants grow to occupy as much ground as possible or grow to be able to grow. up high, which catches sunlight, and the large can always be considered an advantage for survival, this can be clearly seen in the dense forest with many different ecological layers of plants.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 8

But in the ocean, the competition for sunlight does not always seem necessary because from the surface of the sea to the space below 200 meters, there is plenty of sunlight. In addition, the ocean does not have to resist the gravity of the Earth as much as it does on land, so algae and plankton can float in water, and do not need to fix and capture light. Heaven as plants on land. Under such an environment, the "manufacturer" 's most important ability is to reproduce as quickly as possible with sufficient sunlight, and this is considered to be the advantage of unicellular organisms when They can grow exponentially.

Why are marine creatures mostly predators and rarely see seagrass? Picture 9

The environment determines the shape, so the ocean is a world of unicellular producers and seagrass is a vulnerable species, so they can only exist on the shallow seabed, or places where they can be fixed in place as plants on land, so their popularity is very low compared to marine algae and crustaceans.

The reason why there are few herbivores in the ocean can be answered simply now, because the ocean has few seagrasses, and their area is very limited.