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A landscape theory for food web architecture.
Neil Rooney1, Kevin S McCann, John C Moore
1Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada N1G 2W1. nrooney@uoguelph.ca
Ecology Letters
|May 1, 2008
Summary
Food webs exhibit hierarchical organization, stabilizing ecosystems. This structure arises from species
Area of Science:
- Ecology
- Food Web Ecology
- Macroecology
Background:
- Ecologists seek ecosystem stability through understanding natural structures and processes.
- Food web ecology shows empirical patterns are more stable than random systems.
- Challenges include data limitations and ignoring spatial-temporal variation in food webs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a landscape theory of food web architecture.
- To incorporate empirical patterns into a spatially implicit food web structure.
- To explore food web structure across spatial scales.
Main Methods:
- Incorporated empirical patterns from macroecology and behavioral ecology.
- Developed a spatially implicit food web structure.
- Analyzed food web organization along spatial and temporal niche axes.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated that food webs are hierarchically organized.
- Showed hierarchical organization occurs along spatial and temporal niche axes.
- Linked species' resource utilization to hierarchical food web structure.
Conclusions:
- Hierarchical food web organization stabilizes ecosystems.
- This structure is driven by species' niche axes and resource utilization.
- The landscape theory provides a framework for understanding food web architecture.
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