A new article from the research project PlantFish shows quantitative relationships between organism size and biomass, for a number of invertebrates in the shallow coastal zone of the Baltic Sea. Organism biomass is an important variable in many ecological studies. Biomass estimates is however a time consuming and expensive procedure requiring lab time, since the measurements are often done using dry weight or ash-free dry weight. The study, which is to be published in the scientific journal PeerJ, quantitatively relates individual size and biomass, which can speed up biomass estimates in future ecological studies. The PlantFish project is funded by Formas.
Reference: Eklöf JS, Austin Å, Bergström U, Donadi S, Eriksson BK, Hansen J, Sundblad G. (in press). Size matters: relationships between body size and body mass of common coastal, aquatic invertebrates in the Baltic Sea. PeerJ.