IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v312y2015icp125-135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of light, nutrients, and food chain length on trophic efficiencies in simple stoichiometric aquatic food chain models

Author

Listed:
  • Peace, Angela

Abstract

Ecological trophic transfer efficiencies can provide meaningful measures of ecosystem function. Light levels, nutrient availability, and food chain length impact ecological interactions and can cause elemental imbalances between trophic levels which may lead to stoichiometric constraints on food chain efficiencies. Despite the important role that the chemical composition of primary producers and food quality plays in determining consumer productivity, most food chain models used to evaluate trophic transfer efficiencies neglect stoichiometric constraints. This study presents simple stoichiometric models of two and three trophic levels and investigates the effects of light and nutrient availability on ecological transfer efficiencies. The models predict that food chain efficiency is reduced when consumers are nutrient limited. Nutrient levels such that the primary producer and consumer have similar stoichiometric compositions provide conditions for high food chain efficiency. In fixed low nutrient environments, food chain efficiency is highest in light level conditions such that the primary producer and consumer have similar stoichiometric compositions. In fixed high nutrient environments, food chain efficiency is highest for intermediately low light levels such that the phosphorus:carbon ratio of the primary producer is higher than the phosphorus:carbon ratio of the consumer. Food chain efficiency is lower in tritrophic food chains than ditrophic food chains and consumer efficiency is lower in the presence of predation constraints. It is essential for future models to consider light and nutrient availability and the consequential stoichiometric constraints when predicting how energy and elements transfer across trophic levels and up food chains.

Suggested Citation

  • Peace, Angela, 2015. "Effects of light, nutrients, and food chain length on trophic efficiencies in simple stoichiometric aquatic food chain models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 312(C), pages 125-135.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:312:y:2015:i:c:p:125-135
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.05.019
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380015002161
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2015.05.019?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Hao & Sterner, Robert W. & Elser, James J., 2012. "On the “strict homeostasis” assumption in ecological stoichiometry," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 243(C), pages 81-88.
    2. Tanaka, Yoshinari & Mano, Hiroyuki, 2012. "Functional traits of herbivores and food chain efficiency in a simple aquatic community model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 237, pages 88-100.
    3. Elser, James J. & Loladze, Irakli & Peace, Angela L. & Kuang, Yang, 2012. "Lotka re-loaded: Modeling trophic interactions under stoichiometric constraints," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 245(C), pages 3-11.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Hao & Lu, Zexian & Raghavan, Aditya, 2018. "Weak dynamical threshold for the “strict homeostasis” assumption in ecological stoichiometry," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 384(C), pages 233-240.
    2. Pak, S.Ya. & Abakumov, A.I., 2020. "PHYTOPLANKTON in the SEA of OKHOTSK along WESTERN KAMCHATKA: WARM vs COLD YEARS," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 433(C).
    3. Alexander Abakumov & Svetlana Pak, 2023. "Role of Photosynthesis Processes in the Dynamics of the Plant Community," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-24, June.
    4. Liu, Zhi-bin & Liu, Shutang & Wang, Wen & Wang, Da, 2021. "Effect of herd-taxis on the self-organization of a plankton community," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    5. Chertov, Oleg & Komarov, Alexander & Shaw, Cindy & Bykhovets, Sergey & Frolov, Pavel & Shanin, Vladimir & Grabarnik, Pavel & Priputina, Irina & Zubkova, Elena & Shashkov, Maxim, 2017. "Romul_Hum—A model of soil organic matter formation coupling with soil biota activity. II. Parameterisation of the soil food web biota activity," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 345(C), pages 125-139.
    6. Liu, Zhi-bin & Liu, Shu-tang & Tian, Da-dong & Wang, Da, 2021. "Stability analysis of the plankton community with advection," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    7. Komarov, Alexander & Chertov, Oleg & Bykhovets, Sergey & Shaw, Cindy & Nadporozhskaya, Marina & Frolov, Pavel & Shashkov, Maxim & Shanin, Vladimir & Grabarnik, Pavel & Priputina, Irina & Zubkova, Elen, 2017. "Romul_Hum model of soil organic matter formation coupled with soil biota activity. I. Problem formulation, model description, and testing," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 345(C), pages 113-124.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:312:y:2015:i:c:p:125-135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.