Publication Abstract

Predator and prey body sizes in marine food webs

Predator and prey body sizes in marine food webs

C.Barnes*, D.M.Bethea, R.D.Brodeur, J.Spitz, V.Ridoux, C.Pusineri, B.C.Chase, M.E.Hunsicker, F.Juanes, A.Kellermann, J.Lancaster, F.Ménard, F.-X.Bard, P.Munk, J.K.Pinnegar*, F.S.Scharf, R.A.Rountree, K.I.Stergiou, C.Sassa, A.Sabates and S.Jennings*

Knowledge of relationships between predator and prey size are needed to describe interactions of species and size classes in food webs. Most estimates of predator and prey sizes have been based on dietary studies and apply to small numbers of species in a relatively narrow size range. These estimates may or may not be representative of values for other groups of species and body sizes or for other locations. Marine predator and prey size data associated with published literature were identified and collated to produce a single dataset. The dataset consists of 34,931 records from 27 locations covering a wide range of environmental conditions from the tropics to the poles and for 93 types of predator with sizes ranging from 0.1 mg to over 415 kg and 174 prey types with sizes from 75 pg to over 4.5 kg. If predator and/or prey length or mass were not measured in the original study, the length or mass was calculated using length-mass relationships. 

Reference

C.Barnes*, D.M.Bethea, R.D.Brodeur, J.Spitz, V.Ridoux, C.Pusineri, B.C.Chase, M.E.Hunsicker, F.Juanes, A.Kellermann, J.Lancaster, F.Ménard, F.-X.Bard, P.Munk, J.K.Pinnegar*, F.S.Scharf, R.A.Rountree, K.I.Stergiou, C.Sassa, A.Sabates and S.Jennings* (2008) Predator and prey body sizes in marine food webs. Ecology 89(3): 881.

C.Barnes*, D.M.Bethea, R.D.Brodeur, J.Spitz, V.Ridoux, C.Pusineri, B.C.Chase, M.E.Hunsicker, F.Juanes, A.Kellermann, J.Lancaster, F.Ménard, F.-X.Bard, P.Munk, J.K.Pinnegar*, F.S.Scharf, R.A.Rountree, K.I.Stergiou, C.Sassa, A.Sabates and S.Jennings*

Ecology 89(3): 881.