CHAPTER 

 VII 



THE INFORMATION CONCEPT IN ECOLOGY: 

 SOME ASPECTS OF INFORMATION -GATHER- 

 ING BEHAVIOR IN PLANKTON** 



Bernard C. Patten, Ph.D. 



T. 



INTRODUCTION 



.HE subject of community energetics concerns the processes 

 by which ecological coinmunities achieve a favorable balance be- 

 tween energy gains and losses. Referred to as the study of pro- 

 ductivity, or trophodynamics, this is one of the most active areas 

 of investigation in modern ecology. A central concept in this work 

 is that of the food chain (1), or food web (2), beginning with 

 photosynthesizing plants and proceeding through various trophic 

 levels toward a terminal consumer, or consumers. Such a network 

 is illustrated in Figure 1, where the Si represent "species": Si 

 being the sun, So and Ss producers (plants), ^'4-^7 primary con- 

 sumers (herbivores), and .^7-^^11 secondary consumers (carnivores). 

 Note that ^^7 is an omnivore since it consumes both plant and 

 animal material. For simplicity, decomposers are not shown. The qj 

 denote pathways of energy flux: for example qs signifies that energy 

 is gained by Si through eating S2. 



In the mid-1 940's when energy ecologists were involved in 

 working out the intricacies of food chain relationships on a who- 

 eats-whom-and-how-much basis, a physicist, E. Schrodinger, as- 

 serted that living organisms feed upon "negative entropy" (3). 



*Contribution No. 120 from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. 



f The following biochemical abbreviations are used in this paper. 

 ADP = adenosine diphosphate; ATP = adenosine triphosphate; DPN = diphospho- 

 pyridine nucleotide; FMN = flavin mononucleotide; PN = pyridine nucleotide; PNH2 

 = reduced pyridine nucleotide; TPN = triphosphopyridine nucleotide. 



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