Lecture 10

Topics

• Lindeman's view of the "food webs" of Cedar Bog Lake.

• Lindeman's larger view

The Main Points

• Lindeman's approach to studying the trophic dynamics in Cedar Bog Lake led the way in understanding how energy is transformed in ecosystems. Fig. 9-3 (which I presented in lecture) summarizes the energy flow patterns.

• He divides the community into the planktonic and macrophytic sections which come together at the level of the secondary predators. In the center of it all is the Ooze, or the collection of all the Un-utlized material. This accumulates and gradually fills the lake.

• Lindeman expressed all of his energy flow measurements in kilocalories and devloped a model based upon the dynamics of productivity, assimilation and respiration. Section 10-2 in Chapter 10 along with Table 10-1, discuss and show how energy measurements are made.

• Take some time to study Figure 10-9 which summarizes the energy transformations in each link of the "food chain."

• Lindeman's data is presented in Table 10-6 in Ricklefs. Take some time to read the associated text on pages 198-199.

• Lindeman was convinced that in the magnitudes and "efficiencies" of the energy transformations lay the key to understanding "structure" of a community and the way to understanding the changes that take place during succession in an aquatic system.

• His paper was largely instrumental in setting the science onto a new track, one more quantitative and springing from a theoretical base.