Food web dynamics

Humans, fish, and wildlife are exposed to PCBs from a number of different exposure routes, including respiration, water consumption, food consumption, and dermal contact with contaminated water, soil, etc. However, the dominant exposure route is food consumption, and especially the consumption of fish. This is because PCBs bioaccumulate effectively in fats and lipids [35]. As a result, most PCB congeners (including the most toxic ones) biomagnify in the food web, which means that the higher levels of the food web will have greater concentrations than lower ones (see full discussion in the section on food web dynamics). As a result, adverse effects have been observed in fish-eating animals and birds, and in humans that have consumed fish (occupationally exposed workers are not considered in this discussion). 

Ecosystem/Landscape productivity nutrient cycling energy flow food web dynamics ecosystem interactions... 

Viruses are now universally recognized as potentially being a major contributor to phytoplankton and bacterial mortality. Given a life cycle that includes solitary cell and gelatinous colony stages, and their role in food web dynamics and biogeo-... 

Klironomos, J. N. Hart, M. M. (2001). Food-web dynamics. Animal nitrogen swap for plant carbon. Nature, 410, 651-2. 

Nutrient cycling and food web dynamics in oceans are recognized as central problems in chemical and biological oceanography. Compared to studies... 

However, little is currently known about the impact of endophytes on food web dynamics in any natural ecosystem. There is a potential for the grass/endophyte symbiosis to impact more than the associated animal and plant communities. The ecosystem level consequences of endophytes have begun to be considered by a few researchers [106]. These consequences include carbon flow into soil food webs, such as the endophyte effects on litter decomposition and soil microbial activity and changes in soil nutrients availability and secondary compounds that may feedback to the plant community. The two agronomic species L. arundinaceum and L. perenne investigated the most are not native to places where they have been studied (United States and New Zealand) [106]. Further studies in natural ecosystem remain to be done before realistic ecological impact of endophytes can be studied. 

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