Abstract:

With the objective of supporting and guiding conservation of Lake Gehu based on the survey data in 2010,a mass balanced model of the Gehu Lake ecosystem was constructed using Ecopath with Ecosim software.The analysis results indicated that there were seven trophic levels (TLs) in the studied ecosystem,with the trophic flows primarily occurred in the first four TLs and effective trophic levels of the compartments varied from 1 to 3691.Total system production was 1 97482 t/km2·year,and the total system throughput was 8 562544 t/km2·year.Connectance index (CI),system omnivore index (SOI),Finn’s cycled index (FCI) and Finn’s mean path length (FML) were 0219,0189,799 and 2841,respectively.Primary production/respiration,primary production/biomass were 2189 and 3509,respectively.Mean trophic level of the catch was 256.Dominant food chain included the grazing food chain beginning with detritus and the detritivorous food chain beginning with detritus.Compared current model with the model of 1986-1989,system throughput of Lake Gehu shrinked,with rstrategist increasing and Kstrategist decreasing in the system.According to Odum’s description of mature ecosystem,the Gehu lake ecosystem now is degrading from mature status