Energetically relevant predator-prey body mass ratios and their relationship with predator body size.

ABSTRACT: Food web structure and dynamics depend on relationships between body sizes of predators and their prey. Species-based and community-wide estimates of preferred and realized predator-prey mass ratios (PPMR) are required inputs to size-based size spectrum models of marine communities, food webs, and ecosystems. Here, we clarify differences between PPMR definitions in different size spectrum models, in particular differences between PPMR measurements weighting prey abundance in individual predators by biomass (r ^bio) and numbers (r ^num). We argue that the former weighting generates PPMR as usually conceptualized in equilibrium (static) size spectrum models while the latter usually applies to dynamic models. We use diet information from 170,689 individuals o

SUBMITTER: Reum JCP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6342185 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature