title: The decline of the trophic level concept.
abstract: The development of the trophic level concept(1) is described and the causes of its failure as a predictive model in ecology are examined. A defence(2) of and modifications to the trophic level concept are reviewed. A trend towards taxonomic food web analysis is identified leading to models that are independent of the trophic level approach.
authors.affiliation: Steve Cousins is at the Energy and Environment Research Unit, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cousins