Ecopath Theory, Modeling, and Application to Coastal Ecosystems

Ecosystem models describe trophic interactions within the ecosystems and provide a good basis for studying the general patterns of ecological properties. Here, we review 75 Ecopath models of coastal ecosystems to describe and assess their structural and functional characteristics and to investigate the ecological roles of their main functional groups. The analysis highlights the influence of depth, latitude, and longitude on their main ecological properties; the importance of different ecosystem types in distinguishing different ecological features; and the influence of the total size of the modeled ecosystem on ecosystem properties, as bigger ecosystems include higher-trophic-level organisms such as highly mobile fish.