Estimation of secondary production benthos- Winter School on Towards Ecosystem Based Management of Marine Fisheries – Building Mass Balance Trophic and Simulation Models

摘要

Marine organisms can be categorized as benthic, planktonic or nektonic depending onudtheir physical habitat and their mode of motility. Planktonic organisms are those that liveudsuspended in the water column and that are sufficiently small and/or slow so as to beudincapable of directed swimming. Thus, their distribution is considered to be controlled byudphysical processes, such as water currents and turbulent mixing. In addition, plankton can beuddivided further based on their nutritional modality. Autotrophic phytoplankton depends onudlight and chlorophyll to fix carbon dioxide into organic molecules, whereas heterotrophicudzooplankton ultimately depends on the phytoplankton for their dissolved or particulateudfoodstuffs.