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Trophic Dynamics and Development of Freshwater Pelagic Food Webs

  • Chapter
Complex Interactions in Lake Communities

Abstract

The open water or pelagic zones of lakes are characterized by complex interactions that sometimes include edge effects from nearshore and near-bottom areas (Hutchinson 1957). The freshwater pelagia occur in water bodies ranging from small lakes to the world’s great lakes and communities inhabiting this zone are affected by small- to large-scale physical, chemical, and biological processes. Community interactions in pelagic food webs are trophically dynamic and are governed by nutrient limitation, competition, predation, and other ecological forces. Rate processes in pelagic food webs are generally faster than those in terrestrial systems (Paine 1980) and consequently producer controlled and consumer controlled trophic level interactions are more readily observed. Freshwater pelagic food webs have been studied intensively in this century and there is growing awareness of their complexity and uniqueness in aquatic ecology (Persson et al. this volume).

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Authors
  1. Edward L. Mills
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  2. John L. Forney
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, 46556-0369, Indiana, USA

    Stephen R. Carpenter

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Mills, E.L., Forney, J.L. (1988). Trophic Dynamics and Development of Freshwater Pelagic Food Webs. In: Carpenter, S.R. (eds) Complex Interactions in Lake Communities. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3838-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3838-6_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-8372-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-3838-6

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