General Mechanisms for Inverted Biomass Pyramids in Ecosystems

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dc.creatorWang, Hao
dc.creatorMorrison, Wendy
dc.creatorSingh, Abhinav
dc.creatorWeiss, Howard
dc.date2008-11-22
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:20:28Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:20:28Z
dc.descriptionAlthough the existence of robust inverted biomass pyramids seem paradoxical, they have been observed in planktonic communities, and more recently, in pristine coral reefs. Understanding the underlying mechanisms which produce inverted biomass pyramids provides new ecological insights, and for coral reefs, may help mitigate or restore damaged reefs. We present three classes of predator-prey models which elucidate mechanisms that generate robust inverted biomass pyramids. The first class of models exploits well-mixing of predators and prey, the second class has a refuge (with explicit size) for the prey to hide, and the third class incorporates the immigration of prey. Our models indicate that inverted biomass pyramids occur when the prey growth rate, prey carrying capacity, biomass conversion efficiency, the predator life span, or the immigration rate of prey fish is sufficiently large. In the second class, we discuss three hypotheses on how refuge size can impact the amount of prey available to predators. By explicitly incorporating a refuge size, these can more realistically model predator-prey interactions than refgue models with implicit refuge size.
dc.description24 page, 2 figures
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3657
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0811.3657
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/174860
dc.subjectPopulations and Evolution
dc.titleGeneral Mechanisms for Inverted Biomass Pyramids in Ecosystems
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