Question

Most animals that live in deep oceanic waters are
A. Detritivores
B. Primary consumers
C. Secondary consumers
D. Tertiary consumers

Answer 1

Hint: The ecosystem of an ocean consists of a large number of biotic components. Deep part of the ocean doesn’t have sunlight to support photosynthesizing autotrophs. This will hugely impact the ecological pyramid. The animals will adopt the most viable option in such an ecosystem.

Complete answer:
The characteristics of all the given terms along with some examples are described below :
Detritivores – These are also called scavengers. As the name suggests, detritivores consumers (heterotrophs) that get their nutrients by eating detritus. Detritus are decaying parts of animals and plants and the feces of animals. The animals in the deep ocean eat detritus called marine snow. The parts of animals and plants from the upper parts of the sea will fall to the deep ocean, which is comparable to snowfall. Examples of detritivores include millipedes, sea cucumber, sea star, fiddler crabs, etc.
Primary consumer – These are organisms that feed on autotrophs (usually plants and autotrophic microbes) for their food. They are called herbivores and they are very next to primary producers (autotrophs) in the food chain. Examples include grasshopper, rabbit, zooplanktons, small fishes, crustaceans, etc.
Secondary consumers – These types of organisms are the first carnivores in the food chain, and feed on herbivores. Examples include larger fish, penguin, whale, fox, frog, etc.
Tertiary consumers – They depend on other carnivores and large animals for their food. These are usually top predators in a niche. Examples include sharks, tigers, lions, polar bears, etc.

The answer is Detritivores.

Note: Secondary and tertiary consumers cannot sustain without primary consumers. So the viable option for these creatures is being a detritivore. Another interesting trivia is, because of the 10 percent rule of energy transfer, it is difficult to find organisms that depend on tertiary consumers for survival. So most ecosystems stop at the level of tertiary consumers to support scavengers and detritivores.