Beyond the Meal: Trophic Controls by Pelagic and Demersal Chondrichthyes in Two Different Mediterranean Marine Food Webs.

ABSTRACT: Pelagic and demersal Chondrichthyes can assume different patterns of trophic controls on marine food webs, sustaining the functioning of marine ecosystems. These species are impacted by fisheries requiring conservation measures to mitigate the loss of their ecological roles. Amass-balanced modelling approach based on the Ecopath routine was adopted to investigate the trophic roles exhibited by Chondrichthyes through a comparative analysis of two food webs (Calabrian and Salento) within the Northern Ionian Sea (Central Mediterranean Sea). A total of 10 functional groups (FGs) of pelagic (3) and demersal (7) Chondrichthyes were represented in the models. Five ecological indicators were adopted in the analysis of Chondrichthyes: fractional trophic levels (TL) and their variance expressed by t

SUBMITTER: Ricci P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12628014 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature