Food Composition And Food Webs Of Zoobenthos In Yangtze Lakes

Food webs hold a central place in ecology. They are the patterns of energy flow and material cycling among organisms that occur when some organisms consume other living organisms or their parts. Studies on food webs are important because they can help answer basic scientific questions about biotic community, and can help solve practical environmental problems. Lakes are ideal ecosystems for food web studies because they are relatively discrete, self-contained ecosystems with well-defined boundaries. For many years, limnologists have focused mainly on pelagic pathways and ignored benthic processes. However, recent studies showed that benthic pathways play an important role in lake ecosystem functioning. Therefore, the research on trophic basis and relationships of zoobenthos is essential to enhance our understanding of trophic structure and pattern of energy flow of lake ecosystems. Unfortunately, to date there is little work conducted on zoobenthic food webs in lakes in China. The present paper embodies a comprehensive study on trophic basis and pathways of zoobenthic food webs of shallow lakes on the Yangtze basin. During the years 2002-2005, quantitative and qualitative investigations were conducted on three types of lakes: a macrophytes-dominated lake (Lake Biandantang), an algae-dominated lake (Lake Donghu) and a Yangtze River-connected lake (Lake Dongtinghu). The three lakes are located in the south of the middle reach of Yangtze River. Lake Biandantang (30o17′N, 114o43′E) is a small and shallow lake (c. 333 ha, mean water depth 2.17 m) in Hubei Province. Lake Donghu (30°33' N, 114°23' E) is a suburban eutrophic lake in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, and also it is small and...