- Pelagic Ecosystems
- Published:
Organisation in the pelagic ecosystem
Helgoländer wissenschaftliche Meeresuntersuchungen volume 30, pages 575–581 (1977)
Abstract
A continuous, steady-state theory has been developed for the abundance of organisms in the pelagic ecosystem as a function of their body weight. It is based on accepted relationships for the weight-dependence of metabolism and growth, in a context where individual organisms are assigned to one of a series of size classes for which the nominal weights increase in a geometric progression. Analysis of the biomass flow in such a representation leads to the conclusion that, in the steady state, the total biomass in any given size class decreases in a regular manner with increasing size. Explicitly,b(w 2)/b(w 1)~(w 2/w 1)0.22, whereb(w 2) andb(w 1) are the total biomasses in the size classes characterised by weightsw 2 andw 1, respectively. The exponent (−0.22) represents a balance between catabolism and anabolism, based on published reviews concerning the revelant parameters. This result agrees favourably with data collected by other workers in the subtropical oceans. The theory can be used to draw conclusions about the functional dynamics of the pelagic ecosystem, such as community respiration and rate of biomass flow.
Literature Cited
Banse, K., 1976. Rates of growth, respiration and photosynthesis of unicellular algae as related to cellsize—a review. J. Phycol.12, 135–140.
Dickie, L. M., 1972. Food chains and fish production. ICNAF Spec. Publ.8, 201–221.
Fenchel, T., 1974. Intrinsic rate of natural increase: the relationship with body size. Oecologia14, 317–326.
Leim, A. H. & Scott, W. B., 1966. Fishes of the Atlantic coast of Canada, J. C. Stevenson (Ed.). Bull. Fish. Res. Bd Can.155, 288–291.
Parsons, T. R. & Seki, H., 1969. A short review of some automated techniques for the detection and characterization of particles in sea water. Bull. Jap. Soc. Fish. Oceanogr. Spec. Nr. (Prof. Uda's Commemorative Papers), 173–177.
Platt, T. & Denman, K. L. The structure of pelagic marine ecosystems. Rapp. P.-v. Réun. Cons. int. Explor. Mer. (In press).
Sheldon, R. W., Prakash, A. & Sutcliffe, W. H., 1972. The size distribution of particles in the ocean. Limnol. Oceanogr.17, 327–340.
—, Sutcliffe, W. H. & Prakash, A., 1973. The production of particles in the surface waters of the ocean with particular reference to the Sargasso Sea. Limnol. Oceanogr.18, 719–733.
Strickland, J. D. H., 1960. Measuring the production of marine phytoplankton. Bull. Fish. Res. Bd Can.122, 172 p.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Platt, T., Denman, K. Organisation in the pelagic ecosystem. Helgolander Wiss. Meeresunters 30, 575–581 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207862
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02207862