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Communication at the NABS Annual meeting, Keystone, 2000
(16) FISH, AND THE LENGTH OF CHAINS IN RIVER FOOD WEBS.
M.E. Power. Department of Integrative Biology, University of California - Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720
Food chain analysis provides one conceptual framework for our
efforts to understand the ecological complexity of rivers. Food chains
can be viewed in two ways. "Functional" food chains link species or
functional groups that, if unchecked by their own consumers, can
potentially limit the abundance of their prey or resources. These
chains of strong interactions sometimes link predators through
particular consumers to plant abundances, and therefore determine much
about the physical structure and function of the ecological community.
"Descriptive" food chains that describe pathways of energy flow through
food webs may differ from the functional pathways that regulate
population abundances. Fish are sometimes important members of
"functional" food chains", but their effects are more consistent over
variable hydrologic and productivity regimes if they are primary
consumers, rather than predators on invertebrates. I will review
studies in temperate and tropical rivers that illustrate how physical
and biotic factors can interact to influence roles of fish in various
river food webs.
Presented at 2:45 PM on Monday, May 29, 2000 in Wanted Dead or Alive: Role of fish in benthic food webs I
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