All organisms in an ecosystem can be placed in trophic levels depending on what energy source they rely upon and how they provide energy for other organisms in the food web. With the exception of life near hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean, life is always dependent directly or indirectly on the energy from the sun. In every ecosystem, there is an organism at the lowest level that converts energy from the sun into useable energy for other organisms. For example, phytoplankton are photosynthesizers that provide energy for a vast number of primary consumers, which in turn provide energy for secondary consumers and decomposers. The flow of energy generally describes the movement and loss of energy and matter through a community or ecosystem, …show more content…
Table 1 shows the food web of the study area. Based on the study, a variety of prey taxa were consumed over a broad size spectrum. Atlantic salmon was a top predator in the food web while capelin Mallotus villosus and amphipods Themisto sp. was primary consumer. Then, secondary consumer included boreoatlantic armhook squid Gonatus fabricii, sandlance Ammodytes sp., gadiforms, sculpin (Cottoidei), krill(Euphausiidae) and amphipods (Hyperiidae, Gammariidae, ) while phytoplankton is act as a producer in the food webs. Phytoplankton then was eaten by zooplankton. Based on the study, it shows that capelin and amphipod were the most component atlantic salmon diet which act as a top predator in the food web. After 1990, energy density of capelin was decreases. It decreases by 33.7% which altered the Northwest Atlantic ecosystem and Atlantic salmon productivity. The energy keeps loss through the trophic level by 10% from another to another trophic level. As a result, top predator, Atlantic salmon will get less and less energy. Less energy will affect the top consumer in the food web. This can affect the productivity of the ocean. Atlantic salmon growth and maturation depends on the quality and quantity of the …show more content…
2015) Based on the study, the change of the energy flow on the food web will cause the reduction in the capelin energy density which can effects the abundance of the Atlantic salmon. Atlantic salmon will decrease in number due to the insufficient energy. Based on Renkawitz et al. 2015, the relationship between prey quality predator survival, and abundance is highly suggestive of a mechanism for direct trophic regulation of recruitment patterning of some higher trophic species in the Northwest Atlantic. Small pelagic fish are critical components in marine food webs, linking lower and higher trophic levels by providing a vector for energy transfer. In the Labrador Sea, common murre Uria aalge breeding success was shown to decrease with the decreasing size and energy density of their primary prey resource, capelin. The changes in capelin dynamics also caused the growth and reproductive potential of northern Atlantic cod Gadus morua to decline, and population recovery is considered unlikely without a rebuilding of this key forage