Energy Equivalents of Marine Organisms from the Continental Shelf of the Temperate Northwest Atlantic

Abstract

The availability of appropriate energy equivalents is one of the needs in species or community bioenergetic models. Energyequivalent data for 151 common invertebrate and vertebrate species on the continental shelf of the temperate Northwest Atlantic from Nova Scotia to North Carolina are presented and compared with the more limited results of other studies. Energy equivalents were found to be variable among major taxonomic ortrophic groups and general trends were not evident. A review of equivalents from some recent ecosystem models for the Northwest Atlnatic indicates that the models can be substantially improved.