production (?„) and the summary production of bacteria (P\^) , using the 

 equation: PP = Pk + 0.84 Pp. Examples of calculation are presented in 

 Table 12. The calculations show that in tropical waters, the production of 

 primary food may be several times more than the production of 

 phytoplankton. 



The calculations presented above demonstrate the important role of 

 bacteria in providing a spatial energy connection between biotopes with 

 different levels of productivity: upwellings and oligotrophic waters, 

 subantarctic and tropical waters. In temperate waters, the microflora 

 provide the energy connection between phases of the seasonal succession of 

 communities. In littoral and benthic biotopes, it transforms the energy of 

 the mass of dead organic material of the benthic sediments and detritus, 

 dissolved organic matter, and reduced mineral products of anaerobic 

 decomposition into living organic matter of the microbial biomass which can 

 be assimilated. It thus forms the basic food resource, utilizing various 

 local and external sources of energy. 



Based on the information concerning the trophic structure of marine 

 ecosystems, data on the magnitudes of rations, production of bacteria and 

 other heterotrophic microplankton, an attempt was made to compose an 

 approximate diagram of the flows of energy in the ecosystem of the World 

 Ocean (Fig. 12) and, on the basis of the energy consumption of 

 heterotrophs, to estimate the probable necessary "input" of energy into the 

 ecosystem--primary production. Data on the production of benthos and 

 zooplankton were taken from the works of Bogorov (1968, 1974). The biomass 

 of microzooplankton was calculated considering data on the relationship of 

 biomass of meso- and microzooplankton (Beers, Stewart, 1971; Tumantseva, 

 Sorokin, 1975). The approximate production of nekton was calculated on the 

 assumption that the total production of fish is 30 times greater than the 

 total catch. 



We find that some 80% of the energy of primary production is utilized 

 through the detrital food chain, with the participation of bacteria and 

 microzooplankton. This conclusion is in agreement with the data indicating 

 a significant predominance of dead organic matter in any marine biotope. 

 Even in the euphotic zone, the total carbon of plankton, including 

 bacteria, is only 3-lOX of the suspended organic carbon and about 0.5% of 

 the total organic carbon in sea water (Finenko, Zaika, 1970). The direct 

 grazing of phytoplankton by animals is about 25%, which agrees with the 

 data on the consumption of phytoplankton in the North Atlantic (Riley, 

 1957). The respiration of meso- and macrozooplankton represents about 15% 

 of the total respiration of heterotrophs, the remaining portion being 

 accounted for by microplankton (bacteria and microzooplankton), which 

 agrees with the results of direct determinations (Pomeroy, Johannes, 1968). 



Although the ration of animals was assumed minimal, the trophic 

 relationships in the ecosystem are found to be quite highly stressed, even 

 if the input of primary energy is assumed to be 7.6 -lO^' kcal , or about 

 8*10^^ t of carbon per year, which is 3.5 times greater than the primary 

 production calculated by means of the radiocarbon method (Koblentz-Mishke 

 et al., 1968). It is quite probable that future direct determination of 

 this value, based on recalculated and improved radiocarbon methods will 

 yield the same quantity: (7-9) '10^^ t C per year (Eppley, 1981). 



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