Energy Flow Through Marine Ecosystems: Confronting Transfer Efficiency

Tyler D Eddy; Joey R Bernhardt; Julia L Blanchard; William W L Cheung; Mathieu Colléter; Hubert du Pontavice; Elizabeth A Fulton; Didier Gascuel; Kelly A Kearney; Colleen M Petrik; Tilla Roy; Ryan R Rykaczewski; Rebecca Selden; Charles A Stock; Colette C C Wabnitz; Reg A Watson

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.006

Energy Flow Through Marine Ecosystems: Confronting Transfer Efficiency

Trends Ecol Evol. 2021 Jan;36(1):76-86. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.006. Epub 2020 Oct 20.

Authors

Tyler D Eddy¹, Joey R Bernhardt², Julia L Blanchard³, William W L Cheung⁴, Mathieu Colléter⁵, Hubert du Pontavice⁶, Elizabeth A Fulton⁷, Didier Gascuel⁸, Kelly A Kearney⁹, Colleen M Petrik¹⁰, Tilla Roy¹¹, Ryan R Rykaczewski¹², Rebecca Selden¹³, Charles A Stock¹⁴, Colette C C Wabnitz¹⁵, Reg A Watson³

Affiliations

¹ Nippon Foundation Nereus Program, Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA; Centre for Fisheries Ecosystems Research, Fisheries and Marine Institute, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada. Electronic address: tyler.eddy@mi.mun.ca.
² Nippon Foundation Nereus Program and Changing Ocean Research Unit, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
³ Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
⁴ Nippon Foundation Nereus Program and Changing Ocean Research Unit, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ BLOOM Association, Paris, France.
⁶ Nippon Foundation Nereus Program and Changing Ocean Research Unit, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; ESE, Ecology and Ecosystem Health, Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France.
⁷ Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
⁸ ESE, Ecology and Ecosystem Health, Agrocampus Ouest, Rennes, France.
⁹ Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Oceans (JISAO), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Oceanography, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
¹¹ Ecoceana, Ecosystem, Climate, and Ocean Analysis, Paris, France; Department of Geosciences, L'École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.
¹² Nippon Foundation Nereus Program, Baruch Institute for Marine and Coastal Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA; Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Honolulu, HI, USA.
¹³ Department of Biological Sciences, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, USA.
¹⁴ Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Princeton, NJ, USA.
¹⁵ Nippon Foundation Nereus Program and Changing Ocean Research Unit, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.

PMID: 33097289
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2020.09.006

Abstract

Transfer efficiency is the proportion of energy passed between nodes in food webs. It is an emergent, unitless property that is difficult to measure, and responds dynamically to environmental and ecosystem changes. Because the consequences of changes in transfer efficiency compound through ecosystems, slight variations can have large effects on food availability for top predators. Here, we review the processes controlling transfer efficiency, approaches to estimate it, and known variations across ocean biomes. Both process-level analysis and observed macroscale variations suggest that ecosystem-scale transfer efficiency is highly variable, impacted by fishing, and will decline with climate change. It is important that we more fully resolve the processes controlling transfer efficiency in models to effectively anticipate changes in marine ecosystems and fisheries resources.

Keywords: climate change; energy transfer; fishing impacts; food web; trophic ecology; trophic efficiency.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Climate Change
Ecosystem*
Fisheries
Food Chain*