. The Eastern Bering Sea Shelf : oceanography and resources / edited by Donald W. Hood and John A. Calder . 170 Figure 69-11. Quantitative distribution of the total epifauna in the southeastern Bering Sea, 1975-76. virtually overlooked in marine food webs. And yet it is generally accepted that this material is of consid- erably higher quality as food than somatic materieil (see Isaacs 1976). The role of reproductive material in marine trophic systems must be particularly important when the gametes are derived from organ- isms of low nutritional quality, , species ordinarily considered term
. The Eastern Bering Sea Shelf : oceanography and resources / edited by Donald W. Hood and John A. Calder . 170 Figure 69-11. Quantitative distribution of the total epifauna in the southeastern Bering Sea, 1975-76. virtually overlooked in marine food webs. And yet it is generally accepted that this material is of consid- erably higher quality as food than somatic materieil (see Isaacs 1976). The role of reproductive material in marine trophic systems must be particularly important when the gametes are derived from organ- isms of low nutritional quality, , species ordinarily considered terminal members of food chains as adults (, sponges, coelenterates, echinoderms, and tunicates). Thus, pulses of high-energy reproductive material released during spawning of large popula- tions represent important components of secondary production in the Bering Sea as well as other marine systems (see Feder and Jewett 1980 and Feder et al. 1980a for distribution data of Bering Sea mac- rofauna). Many larger invertebrates, as well as fishes, produce vast quantities of gametes that are avail- able as food to forms at lower trophic levels. Sperm can be utilized by filter-feeding polychaetous anne- lids, bivalve moUusks, and larvaceans. Eggs may be taken by species that filter large particles, , cope- pods, euphausiids, salps, and larval and small fishes and by adult clupeoids. The importance of repro- ductive products as food is not restricted to sperm and eggs, but also extends to the use of pelagic larvae. Unlike terrestrial food webs in which reproductive material constitutes an upward flux, reproductive material in msirine food webs often exhibits a down-
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