Decline in Top Predator Body Size and Changing Climate Alter Trophic Structure in an Oceanic Ecosystem (Book Report Sample)

the task is to make SYNTHESIS REPORT about a study by SHACKELL ET AL. (2010) ntitled “Decline in top predator body size and changing climate alter trophic structure in an oceanic ecosystem”.
The highlighted results of the case study presented how the prey biomass measure was able to potentially reach a peak level in specific conditions. It is clear that there are two determining factors that resulted in the alteration of the trophic structure: predator overfishing/over-exploitation, and ocean stratification brought by climate change but need more deep investigation. Empirical modeling of time series data is a great tool to examine how trophic dynamics of an ecosystem change over time and how it affects the ecosystem services
The productivity of an ecosystem greatly depends on the bottom-up transfer of energy, starting from organisms of the lowest trophic level up to the top predators. It is a notable characteristic of an ecosystem to have a synchronized interaction and an organized transmission of energy obtained along the food chain. Considering the dependence of higher trophic organisms to their prey in order to obtain energy, it is clear to say that the biomass of the top predators is highly influenced by the productivity of those that are belonging in the lower level of the chain (Strong 1992). The alterations of the composition and abundance of top predators can either directly or indirectly affect the lower trophic organisms as well. One specific condition that could result in this phenomenon is over-exploitation. In a food chain, if the top predators are eliminated, a drastic growth of their prey would be observed due to eased competition and diminished predation activity (Berger et al., 2001; Bascompte et al., 2005). This could also bring a huge impact not only to the abundance of the preys but also to the dynamics of the trophic organization as a whole (Frank et al., 2005).