Cannibalism

Well, if u r hungry what would u choose? Waiting 2 minutes for maggi noodles or eating up your neighbour or any other human being (ur enemy)??? If u choose the later, then the biologists will refer it as cannibalism. More appropriately the zoologists use this term when one individual eats another individual of same species.

Also there is a specific type of cannibalism wherein female organism kills the mate and feeds upon it after copulation this is called as sexual cannibalism.

Imagine a bunch of males approaching a beautiful female , and the female eating up the males she doesn’t want to mate with. Well males shouldn’t be horrified with this as this is seen in case of spiders. In certain species ,female may tear off the reproductive organ of male after copulation and eat the remaining part of his body . Some females may turn out to be too rude, such that they may remove head of the male so that proper ejaculation will occur. But not all are bad , during mating males may give their own stomatch in the mouth of females and then females eat them up after copulation, but respect is given to the sacrificed male as she doesn’t mate with any other organism after that. This is not actually marine , but an very interesting fact .

Another kind of cannibalism involves feeding of younger ones(infants) by adults . They act as a source of energy to adults. This phenomenon could be seen in aquariums also, wherein the newborn fishes are fed upon by adults in the water.
In certain species of copepods(zooplankton) females keep control of population by feeding on eggs. Cannibalistic behaviour is seen in various species of crab in almost all life stages.

A particular kind of cannibalism like feeding of stronger sibling with the weaker one is also seen . This is called as intrauterine cannibalism , seen in sharks.

This phenomenon May occur in response to space or competition in the habitat.

Phytoplanktons....

Vast water bodies that we see, have millions and billions of life forms , including phytoplankton ,zooplanktons ,bacteria ,viruses , reptiles and other larger mammals.

Phytoplanktons to oceans are just like trees to land.

They cannot be seen very clearly in naked eyes. They take up CO2(Carbon dioxide) and give up Oxygen.

Red sea gets its color due to a particular species which imparts reddish color to the water.

In order to see these organisms ,marine biologists follow a particular laboratory method.

They could be viewed by using compound microscopes (inverted). These microscopes are preferred as the size of these organisms 2 micron to 2 millimeters .

The procedure is very simple. About 100 ml of seawater is required, to which a few drops of preservative (lugols iodine )is added. Due to this sample to be viewed wil be preserved for a period of 6 months atleast. Sample is then brought in laboratory and kept in stationary position for 12 hours.

In order to get concentrated sample, siphoning with 2 micron mesh is done. Volume is reduced to 25 /50 ml . One ml sample is analyzed by using sedgwick rafter, and then viewed under microscope.

Main phytoplankton groups are diatoms and dinoflagellates in the ratio of 8:20.

Just as on land the plants form the base of food chain , phytoplankton form the base of food chain in the water bodies.

Excess of growth of such forms may decrease the quality of water, reduces the light penetration of light in water . Increase in their growth is due to higher availability of nutrients.

Here are some of the phytoplankton images :