On the role of bacteria in secondary production

sufficient to meet bacterial needs (let alone the needs of other consumers) to one in which bacterial needs are very much less than available carbon, thereby solving the budgetary problems discussed in the closing paragraphs of Scavia and Laird’s paper. Similarly, an explicit consideration of the recycling of organic carbon by consumers may help to explain apparently excessive demands of consumers in other ecosystems, especially retentive systems such as the open ocean.