Bering Sea study finds prey density more important to predators than biomass

PhysOrg – Marine resource managers often gauge the health of species based on overall biomass, but a new study of predator-prey relationships in the Bering Sea found that it isn’t the total number of individuals that predators care about – it’s how densely they are aggregated. It’s more than searching for an easy meal, the researchers say. Predators need to balance how much energy they expend in searching for food with the caloric and nutrient value of that which they consume. When prey doesn’t aggregate, however, the search for food becomes much more difficult – affecting the health of the predators’ offspring and the vitality of their overall population. Read article

Source Article from http://openyoureyesnews.com/2013/01/06/bering-sea-study-finds-prey-density-more-important-to-predators-than-biomass/

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