Regional peculiarities of community-wide trophic cascades in strongly degraded Black Sea food web

Creative Commons License

Oguz T., SALİHOĞLU B., Moncheva S., Abaza V.

JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH, vol.34, no.4, pp.338-343, 2012 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 34 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2012
  • Doi Number: 10.1093/plankt/fbs002
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF PLANKTON RESEARCH
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.338-343
  • Keywords: Black Sea, benthic and pelagic food webs, fishery collapse, invasive species, trophic cascade, MNEMIOPSIS-LEIDYI, ECOSYSTEM, DYNAMICS
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The community-wide trophic cascade due to collapsed fish stocks and population outburst of invasive predators after the early 1990s resulted in different pelagic and benthic food web structures in the Black Sea. The northeastern region assumed their most simplified forms characterized by increasing mesozooplankton and polychaete biomass. The ecological degradation is more severe in the northwestern part, whereas the southern basin maintains an anchovy fishery under relatively weak gelatinous predation.