Halnes, Geir
- Department of Energy and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Standard ecology textbooks typically maintain that nutrients cycle, but energy flows in unidirectional chains. However, here we use a new metric that allows for the identification and quantification of cyclic energy pathways. Some of these important pathways occur due to the contribution of dead organic matter to detrital pools and those organisms that feed on them, reintroducing some of that energy back into the food web. Recognition of these cyclic energy pathways profoundly impacts many aspects of ecology such as trophic levels, control, and the importance of indirect effects. Network analysis, specifically the maximum eigenvalue of the connectance matrix, is used to identify both the presence and strength of these structural cycles. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords
cycling; detritus; energy flow; food webs; network analysis; trophic dynamics
Published in
Ecological Modelling
2007, volume: 208, number: 1, pages: 17-24
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.04.020
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/17091