Energy Flow Through Marine Ecosystems: Confronting Transfer Efficiency

Transfer efficiency is the proportion of energy passed between nodes in food webs. It is an emergent, unitless property that is difficult to measure, and responds dynamically to environmental and ecosystem changes. Because the consequences of changes in transfer efficiency compound through ecosystems, slight variations can have large effects on food availability for top predators. Here, we review the processes controlling transfer efficiency, approaches to estimate it, and known variations across ocean biomes. Both process-level analysis and observed macro-scale variations suggest that ecosystem-scale transfer efficiency is highly variable, impacted by fishing, and will decline with climate change. It is important that we more fully resolve the processes controlling transfer efficiency in models to effectively anticipate changes in marine ecosystems and fisheries resources.

Keyword(s)

trophic ecology, food web, trophic efficiency, energy transfer, climate change, fishing impacts

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Eddy Tyler D., Bernhardt Joey R., Blanchard Julia L., Cheung William W. L., Colleter Mathieu, Du Pontavice Hubert, Fulton Elizabeth A., Gascuel Didier, Kearney Kelly A., Petrik Colleen M., Roy Tilla, Rykaczewski Ryan R., Selden Rebecca, Stock Charles A., Wabnitz Colette C. C., Watson Reg A. (2021). Energy Flow Through Marine Ecosystems: Confronting Transfer Efficiency. Trends In Ecology & Evolution. 36 (1). 76-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.006, https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00928/104019/

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