Benthic invertebrate production—facilitating answers to ecological riddles in freshwater ecosystems

Abstract

AbstractInvertebrate secondary production, or the formation of invertebrate biomass through time, has been estimated in many freshwater benthic habitats. It has been a major research theme for the North American Benthological Society (NABS), and many of its members have made significant contributions to the subject, both before and during the existence of J-NABS. Although some benthic production work occurred before 1960, the major methods were developed primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. Most of these methods also were applied in terrestrial and marine environments. The main focus of our paper is how secondary production has been used as an essential variable in facilitating answers to a wide variety of ecological questions. Benthic freshwater production studies before the inception of J-NABS were primarily related to life history, interpopulation comparisons, niche overlap/competition, predator–prey relationships, differences in production/biomass (P/B), energy flow, the trophic basis of production, ...