Abstract
The food supply of the bulk of the marine benthos is provided by the downward transport of organic matter produced by phytoplankton in the surface layer. The importance for the benthos of this vertical transfer of matter and energy from the pelagic to the benthic system has been recognised for a long time, although only recently has effort been devoted towards measuring this vertical flux. In the past, there has been a widespread tendency amongst aquatic ecologists to regard sedimentation out of the pelagic community as an elimination of waste products and hence of little direct consequence to the functioning of the pelagic system. However, results obtained during the last decade from direct monitoring of the export of particulate matter out of the pelagic system with sediment traps now necessitate a revisai of earlier concepts. At present, attention is still centered primarily on measuring rates of sedimentation and examining the nature of this material rather than on elucidating the mechanisms governing the export of biogenous material from the surface layer. Thus, the ecological processes regulating magnitude and quality of the benthic food supply are still not well documented, and most of the available information is of an indirect nature.
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Smetacek, V. (1984). The Supply of Food to the Benthos. In: Fasham, M.J.R. (eds) Flows of Energy and Materials in Marine Ecosystems. NATO Conference Series, vol 13. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-0387-0_20
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