Miacfadven (1948) has e Shoxn that onfuslion ofteni results from tire fact that nulr1 try authors fc-ail to see tire (listinletionl betweer thre cycle of nra tter ill a Comuirunity and the flow of ener-gy through a 'I comnmunity. I1iom11rass 1111its are less suitabl because there is recirculationi of nimitter iti the ecosystenll and ecIaus thle rates oft tirlve alre so different for (lifferert sizes awr(l species of orgoanismns. The author follows the lead of Miacfadyenr (1948) iII believinIg eergv'' 111its to be I)1etelre(l ill studies of commullity Inetabolisill. Studi(s1, of comrullitv tinetabholisllr have beeni gen(rtl'xly imlade either ill terurs of energy ()om of bioImaISS either as liomass itoselt O iii termis of a portion of th(e biomiaIss sUcIh as l)roteill or fat). It should be emrplhasize(d, h(owever, that ill tile l)resent state of our knowledge of communitv metabolism considerably imore assulml)ptions have to be miade in or(der to p)lesenlt a complete picture thanr would be tire calse in many other fields. Tlie p)resemrt studyN, of thle relatively simptles esystem of a cold spriirg wvas undertaken to provide a In:ore exact mea.*irernent of community nietabolisni thanlia batd beeu available. It l)lovides a ineasure of the total activity of a comniullity just as a study o t individual inetaholism dloes for ari ill(liVidual organirsll. Essentially it consistss of the study of energy transformation by the orvanisnIs of aan ecosvstem. INTRODUCTION The study of conrllurunitv metabolism is one means of making a functional analysis of an ecosystem.
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