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Models of Small-Scale PatchinessPatchiness is perhaps the most salient characteristic of plankton populations in the ocean. The scale of this heterogeneity spans many orders of magnitude in its spatial extent, ranging from planetary down to microscale. It has been argued that patchiness plays a fundamental role in the functioning of marine ecosystems, insofar as the mean conditions may not reflect the environment to which organisms are adapted. For example, the fact that some abundant predators cannot thrive on the mean concentration of their prey in the ocean implies that they are somehow capable of exploiting small-scale patches of prey whose concentrations are much larger than the mean. Understanding the nature of this patchiness is thus one of the major challenges of oceanographic ecology. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.
Document ID
20020037749
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Other
Authors
McGillicuddy Dennis J., Jr.
(Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst. MA United States)
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2001
Publication Information
Publication: Small-Scale Patchiness, Models of
Publisher: Academic Press
Subject Category
Oceanography
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NAG5-6455
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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