Ecosystem function: standing biomass
We used standing fish biomass, which is a commonly used aquatic
ecosystem function metric (Benkwitt et al., 2020). Fish biomass is also
directly related to important ecosystem services, such as fish
production and food security (Benkwitt et al., 2020). To estimate
standing fish biomass, most fish individuals were weighed on a
microbalance (0.01 g precision). For species not weighed on
microbalance, we calculated the biomass by using published
species-specific length–weight relationships (e.g., Froese & Pauly,
2018). The standing biomass of the entire fish assemblage (g
m-²) was then quantified by summing the weight of all
individuals at each site and dividing by the site area.