Synopses & Reviews
In this book, a multidisciplinary research team tests this idea by manipulating whole lakes experimentally, and coordinating this with paleolimnological studies, simulation modeling, and small-scale enclosure experiments. Contributors describe consequences of predator-prey interactions, behavioral responses of fishes, diel vertical migration of zooplankton, plankton community change, primary production, nutrient cycling and microbial processes. Paleolimnological techniques enable the reconstruction of trophic interactions from past decades. Prospects for analyzing the interaction of food web structure and nutrient input in lakes are explored.
Review
"I found the book to be clearly written, and appropriate for its target audience, researchers in ecology and resource management...The breadth of approaches brought to bear in the study is extremely impressive...I recommend this book as a fine case history of a pluralistic approach to an important ecological issue." Tim Wootton, Ecology"State-of-the-art theory and methods in a variety of ecological and aquatic disciplines are brought together and integrated. Many ecologists will be intrigued by the statistical approaches applied throughout the book...resource managers will find important and useful lessons about ecosystem management in practice." Brett Johnson, Fisheries Review"This book is of interest to workers in ecology, aquatic ecology, resource management, and limnology." Environment International
Synopsis
Fluctuations in fish populations can cascade through food webs to alter productivity and other fundamental processes in lakes. Here, that idea is tested by manipulating whole lakes experimentally. These experiments are coordinated with historical reconstructions, smaller-scale experiments, and computer simulation. Results document the importance of trophic cascades in aquatic ecology, and show how complex community, population and behavioural interactions can alter effects of top trophic levels on ecosystem productivity.
Synopsis
Trophic cascades may interact with nutrients and physical factors to explain most of the variance in lake ecosystem process rates. This text tests this idea by manipulating whole lakes experimentally and coordinating this with paleolimnological studies, simulation modeling, and small-scale enclosure experiments.
Table of Contents
1. Cascading trophic interactions; 2. Experimental lakes, manipulations and measurements; 3. Statistical analysis of the ecosystem experiments; 4. The fish populations; 5. Fish behavioral and community responses to manipulation; 6. Roles of fish predation: piscivory and planktivory; 7. Dynamics of the phantom midge: implications for zooplankton; 8. Zooplankton community dynamics; 9. Effects of predators and food supply and diel vertical migration of Daphnia; 10. Zooplankton biomass and body size; 11. Phytoplankton community dynamics; 12. Metalimnetic phytoplankton; 13. Primary production and its interactions with nutrients and light transmission; 14. Heterotrophic microbial processes; 15. Annual fossil record of food-web manipulation; 16. Simulation models of the trophic cascade: predictions and evaluations; 17. Synthesis and new directions; Index.