EcoTroph modelling support
Description
EcoTroph is an approach and software for modelling marine
and freshwater ecosystems. It is articulated entirely around
trophic levels. EcoTroph's key displays are bivariate plots,
with trophic level as the abscissa, and biomass flows or
related quantities as ordinate. Thus, trophic ecosystem
functioning can be modelled as a continuous flow of biomass
surging up the food web, from lower to higher trophic levels,
because of predation and ontogenic processes. Such an approach,
wherein species as such disappear, may be regarded as
constituting the ultimate stage in the use of the trophic level
metric for ecosystem modelling, providing a simplified but
potentially useful caricature of ecosystem functioning and
impact of fishing.