AN EMPIRICAL-MODEL FOR THE PREDICTION OF SECONDARY PRODUCTION IN MARINE BENTHIC INVERTEBRATE POPULATIONS

An existing marine benthos production model, based on population characteristics, and a freshwater invertebrate production model, based on population characteristics and temperature, were tested for applicability to marine benthos populations from around the world. The freshwater model makes poor predictions of marine secondary production while the marine model makes better predictions but errors are correlated with both water temperature and water depth, 4 new marine benthos production model is therefore constructed that accounts for world-wide variation in benthos biomass, individual body mass, water temperature and depth. This multivariate analysis shows that secondary production rises with biomass (B) as proportional to B-1 as others have found and production varies with population maximum body mass (W-m) as W-m(-0.25) as suggested by allometric theory. The strong effect of temperature indicates that the Q(10) of secondary production is between 2 and 2.5. The effect of depth is strongly negative, suggesting that food quality map be lower at greater depth but the effect of depth is lessened in cold seas, Residual analyses accounting for the influences of biomass, body mass, temperature and depth suggest that anthropogenically enriched regions of the sea are more productive than oligotrophic waters. Our results suggest that rare, large animals living in the depths of cold seas support the lowest rates of exploitation and are thus at greatest risk of extinction from overexploitation.