Strand, M. A.; Nagel, W. P. 1972. Preliminary considerations of the forest canopy consumer subsystem. In: Research on coniferous forest ecosystems: first year progress in the coniferous forest biome, US/IBP: Proceedings of a symposium; 1972 March 23-24; Bellingham, WA. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station: 71-77.
A food chain beginning with herbaceous materials produced in the forest canopy is delineated as asubsystem. A conceptual model of energy flow through this subsystem includes assumptions and definitionsrelating to components of the canopy food chain, processes by which energy is transferred, and the energypathways. From this conceptual model, it is observed that the canopy food chain is directly coupled to otherconsumer subsystems through common predators and through the detritus component. Besides the directrelationship through the food base to primary production, this subsystem may also influence 112e plant systemby its effects on the sites of plant hormone production and on the fate of mobile nutrients in the ecosystem.