STRUCTURE OF THE BODY-SIZE SPECTRUM OF THE BIOMASS IN AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS - A CONSEQUENCE OF ALLOMETRY IN PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTIONS

An equation describing predator-prey trophic energy transfers and production within the body-size spectrum of the biomass of aquatic ecosystems is formulated using allometric functions of body size. Its solution is the sum of two parts. One is a quadratic term that gives parabolic domes of biomass, in accordance with observations in nature. A second part, which seems not to have been recognized earlier, is a periodic function of log body size having significant potential for interpreting sample data reflecting ecosystem dynamics. The formulation is fitted to fish data from a small lake to demonstrate the applicability of the basic model to observations and to examine the scales of interaction of the measures of ecosystem dynamics that may be derived from them.