Biology 2483A Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Persistent Organic Pollutant, Bioaccumulation, Steller Sea Lion
19 Dec 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Net secondary production = ingestion respiration egestion: the ecological roles of organisms are determined by their trophic interactions , this determines the influence of an organism on the movement of energy and. Energy produced by autotrophs within the system is autochthonous energy. In terrestrial ecosystems, energy and biomass pyramids are similar because biomass is closely associated with energy production. In aquatic ecosystems, the biomass pyramid may be inverted. The primary producers are phytoplankton with short life spans and high turnover. This suggests that herbivore production is limited by the amount of food available. What determines # of trophic levels in an ecosystem: the number of trophic levels may change due to addition or loss of a top predator, or a predator in the middle of the food chain. Case study: a study of 36 islands in the bahamas found that island size was correlated with number of trophic levels (takimoto et al.
