The Structure of Saprobic Communities

✍ Scribed by Doz. Dr. Vladimír Sládeček

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1972
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 295 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1434-2944
• DOI: 10.1002/iroh.19720570302

✦ Synopsis

The Structure of Saprobic Communities Trophic structure may be demonstrated graphically by means of Eltonian (ecological) pyramids in which the first levels form the base and the successive levels the tiers which make up the apex. The pyramids may be of three general types (ODUM, 1959) : 1, the pJramids of numbers in which the number of individual organisms is depicted, 2, the pyramids of biomass based on the total dry weight, caloric value, Kjeldahl N, organic C or other mass measure, and, 3, the pyramids of energy in which the rate of energy flow and/or productivity at successive trophic levels is shown.

As a classic example the pyramid of biomass inclusive of dissolved organic matter, in Weber Lake, Wisconsin, is shown in Fig. according t o JUDAY, 1942. Such diagrams are very instructive and attractive. HAWKES (1963) constructed