Traditional taxon-based approaches to the study of marine benthic assemblages are time consuming activities and require considerable expertise. The biomass size spectrum, which considers only the size of organisms, is a useful and practical alternative for ecologists. It was introduced by Sheldon et al. in 1972 to describe features of marine pelagic ecosystems. Schwinghamer was the first to extend this idea to benthic assemblages. He found a conservative pattern in size-class spectra with distinct maxima wi...