Consequences of reducing the abundance of large species on abundance and biomass.

<p>a) Abundance (light blue, scale on left) and biomass (dark blue, scale on right) of blue whales lost from the Southern Ocean. Based on metabolic scaling, the same amount of food could support larger populations of minke whales or penguins, but the biomass of these populations would be less than the original blue whale population. b) Abundance spectra for southern hemisphere mysticetes before whaling (dark circles) and in 2001 (light squares). The regression line for the pre-whaling spectrum (dashed line) has a slope and 95% confidence bound of −0.36±1.01, while the 2001 spectrum (black line) has a slope of 2.05±1.30 and the regression is significant (p<0.05, r² = 0.83, n = 6). c) Impact of steepening the abundance spectra on the total biomass contained in four different communities. In all cases, the food requirements of the community were kept constant as the slope varied. The communities differ in the range of masses contained in the community: 2 (circles), 3 (squares), 4 (triangles), and 5 (diamonds) orders of magnitude.