Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

A general model for food web structure.

Stefano Allesina1, David Alonso, Mercedes Pascual

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Natural Science Building, 830 North University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. allesina@nceas.ucsb.edu

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|May 3, 2008
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

From multiplicity of infection to force of infection in sparsely sampled high-transmission <i>Plasmodium falciparum</i> populations.

eLife·2026
Same author

Beyond Temperature: Relative Humidity Systematically Shifts Juvenile Thermal Performance and Projected Population Growth in a Malaria Vector.

Ecology letters·2026
Same author

The structure of pairwise competition drives sudden regime shifts in a microbe-plasmid model.

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·2026
Same author

Analysis of the impact of gene evolution on reproductive effects reveals prevalent sexual and germline-soma conflicts.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026
Same author

Comparison of solid phase microextraction coatings for headspace extraction of volatile perfluoroalkyl substances using one-dimensional and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography.

Analytica chimica acta·2026
Same author

Humidity shapes the thermal niche of <i>Anopheles stephensi</i>, an invasive malaria vector.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026
Same journal

A native sulfur deposit in Gale crater, Mars.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2026
Same journal

Coordinated demise of harmful algal blooms.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2026
Same journal

Genetic effects put into context.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2026
Same journal

Bacteria share proteins to survive antibiotics.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2026
Same journal

Impacts shaped Earth's first continents.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2026
Same journal

Erratum for the Report "Covalently bonded single-molecule junctions with stable and reversible photoswitched conductivity" by C. Jia <i>et al</i>.

Science (New York, N.Y.)·2026
See all related articles

Ecological food web models are crucial for understanding ecosystem dynamics. Our new likelihood-based approach reveals existing models fall short, and we introduce an improved model that accurately replicates empirical data.

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Network theory
  • Ecosystem dynamics

Background:

  • Food webs represent species feeding relationships, crucial for ecosystem stability.
  • Network topology influences ecosystem dynamics and response to human impacts.
  • Existing models struggle to fully capture the complexity of empirical food webs.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the accuracy of current food web models.
  • To develop a novel method for comparing ecological network models.
  • To propose a new, data-driven food web model.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative analysis of three leading food web models.
  • Development of a likelihood-based framework for model comparison.
  • Validation against empirical food web datasets.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • The three main existing food web models do not fully replicate empirical data.
  • A new likelihood-based approach enables direct comparison of network models.
  • The developed model successfully generates all tested empirical datasets with high likelihood.

Conclusions:

  • Existing food web models require refinement to match empirical observations.
  • A likelihood-based approach is effective for evaluating ecological network models.
  • The novel model provides a more accurate representation of food web structures and dynamics.