Regional peculiarities of community-wide trophic cascades in strongly degraded Black Sea food web

Abstract

The community-wide trophic cascade due to collapsed fish stocks and population outburst of invasive predators after the early 1990s resulted in different pelagic and benthic food web structures in the Black Sea. The northeastern region assumed their most simplified forms characterized by increasing mesozooplankton and polychaete biomass. The ecological degradation is more severe in the northwestern part, whereas the southern basin maintains an anchovy fishery under relatively weak gelatinous predation. © 2012 The Author. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.