Schematic size spectra of marine communities and sources of sinking particles.

<p>The lines show idealized responses of community size spectra to changes in fish abundance. Because the abundance of organisms generally decreases with size, zooplankton will produce large amounts of more slowly-sinking faecal pellets, while large fish will produce small amounts of rapidly-sinking fecal pellets. The hypothetical predator-removal spectra are inspired by the simulated impacts of fishing on size spectrum models [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0199420#pone.0199420.ref018" target="_blank">18</a>].