Question

How might an oil spill in the ocean affect an aquatic food web? What might happen to the food web on land located near the spill? Explain your answers.

Answer 1

It might affect the aquatic food web because some species might die to the point where they become extinct and the species that rely on that one or few species that do become extinct might also become extinct leading the aquatic food web to pretty much die half way through.

Answer 2

The oil spill in the ocean affects the aquatic food chain adversely as due to oil spills the organisms that live in that part of the ocean start dying due to lack of oxygen.

As the fishes and other organisms die the species diversity decreases which decrease the food available for each trophic level in a food chain. Therefore the aquatic food web will become shorter.

Oil spills also affect the food web on land that is located near the spill because these oil spills come to the land by tides and then the plants and grasses present on that land absorb the oil that damage these primary producers. So oil spills on the land produce unsuitable habitat for wildlife to flourish therefore it adversely affect the food web of land.