A Comparison Of The Eastern And Western Bering Seas As Seen Through Predation-Based Food Web Modeling

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We present a comparison of two quantitative food web models of the eastern and western Bering Sea Shelf/Slope areas. Food webs were created from independent estimates of production, consumption, biomass and diet from each region for multiple predator and prey species. The results highlight the differences in the trophic structure of the two food webs from the top predators’ point of view, and also provide substantial insights into the relative strengths of different methods for measuring predator-prey linkages. The pelagic community of the western Bering Sea showed a higher production in the lower trophic levels. The benthic community of the western Bering Sea shelf is dominated by epibenthos, with little or no transfer of energy into higher trophic levels. In the eastern Bering Sea, a complex community may compete with the epibenthos and provide an important pathway for energy flow into high trophic-level fish. Direct estimation of food consumption rates from the stomach contents of larger fish (cod and pollock), tended to estimate consumption rates which were not sustainable within the system: bionergetics models provided estimates that were more consistent with system production levels.