What is at top of the food chain?

An apex predator, also known as an alpha predator or top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic levels.

Are viruses part of the ecosystem?

Ecology is usually described as the study of organisms interacting with one another and their environments. From this view of ecology, viruses – not usually considered to be organisms – would merely be part of the environment.

Does anything feed on viruses?

Teeny, single-cell creatures floating in the ocean may be the first organisms ever confirmed to eat viruses. Scientists scooped up the organisms, known as protists, from the surface waters of the Gulf of Maine and the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Catalonia, Spain.

Are virus part of the food chain?

Thus viruses are a critical part of inorganic nutrient recycling. So while they are tiny and seem insignificant, viruses actually play an essential global role in the recycling of nutrients through food webs.

Are we surrounded by germs?

We are not alone. No matter how clean we are or how healthy we feel, we carry around on our bodies billions of microbes—microscopic one-celled organisms called bacteria and viruses. Although they cannot be seen, microbes hide under fingernails, lurk between teeth, and live in hair.

What level are humans on the food chain?

They found that, on average, humans get 80\% of their daily calories from plants and 20\% from meat and fish, according to the team’s 2013 study results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That puts us at an average trophic level of 2.21 — somewhere between anchovies and pigs.

What organism feeds on viruses?

A single-celled marine organism known as protists is the predator that devours viruses. In a recent study, scientists collected some protists from the surface of the Gulf of Maine and the Mediterranean Sea around Catalonia in Spain.

Do viruses need nutrition?

Viruses are too small and simple to collect or use their own energy – they just steal it from the cells they infect. Viruses only need energy when they make copies of themselves, and they don’t need any energy at all when they are outside of a cell.