Energy flow measurements

Abstract

Measurement of biomass alone, important though it may be in comparing the immediately available standing crop from place to place, is quite inadequate for the purpose of predicting the predation rate or the fishery yield that a benthic community does, or could, sustain over a long period. For these purposes the rates of production of organic matter by the various members of the benthic community and their trophic dependence on one another or on sources outside the benthos must be known. The distinction between rate of production (or productivity) of organic matter by an organism or a community and the standing crop, consisting of the organism itself or the community, is fundamental. The reader is warned against some confusing uses of the term "productivity".