A unified framework for herbivore-to-producer biomass ratio reveals the relative influence of four ecological factors

Abstract

Takehiro Kazama et al. develop a framework based on Lotka–Volterra models to identify the relative influences of production rate, defense traits, nutrient contents of producers, and predation, in affecting the biomass ratio of herbivores to primary producers in a community. They apply this framework to freshwater plankton systems and find that while all factors affect the biomass ratio, carnivore abundance has the greatest relative influence.