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 Concept Videos

Optimal Foraging00:48

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.
Predator-Prey Interactions02:39

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.Although predation is commonly associated with carnivory, for...
Ecological Niches02:02

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.Multiple species cannot occupy the exact same niche within their habitat. If the niches of two or more species overlap to a large extent, the competitive exclusion principle dictates that one species will outcompete the other, forcing it to...
Dietary Connections01:23

Dietary Connections

In biological systems, most metabolic pathways are interconnected. The cellular respiration processes that convert glucose to ATP—such as glycolysis, pyruvate oxidation, and the citric acid cycle—tie into those that break down other organic compounds. As a result, various foods—from apples to cheese to guacamole—end up as ATP. In addition to carbohydrates, food also contains proteins and lipids—such as cholesterol and fats. All of these organic compounds are used as energy sources to produce...
Trophic Efficiency00:46

Trophic Efficiency

Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) is a measure of the total energy transfer from one trophic level to the next. Due to extensive energy loss as metabolic heat, an average of only 10% of the original energy obtained is passed on to the next level. This pattern of energy loss severely limits the possible number of trophic levels in a food chain.
Habitat Fragmentation02:31

Habitat Fragmentation

Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.

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

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

Nature ecology & evolution·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 author

Global stability of ecological and evolutionary dynamics via equivalence.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2026
Same author

Socioeconomic and household water management determinants of malaria and other vector-borne disease prevention in Urban Gujarat, India.

Malaria journal·2026
Same journal

Higher-Order Interactions Can Promote Coexistence by Rewiring Intransitivities Into Competitive Networks.

Ecology letters·2026
Same journal

Plants That Evolved Under High Phylogenetic Diversity Have Higher Invasion Success, Particularly in Undisturbed Communities.

Ecology letters·2026
Same journal

Predictors of Food Web Resistance to Environmental Change.

Ecology letters·2026
Same journal

AI, Comparative Advantage, and the Next Decade of Ecological Research.

Ecology letters·2026
Same journal

Towards Key Principles of Host-Associated Microbiome Assembly.

Ecology letters·2026
Same journal

Temperature and Resource Supply Drive Continental Variation in Size Structure of Freshwater Food Webs.

Ecology letters·2026
See all related articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 23, 2026

A Do-it-yourself System for Scheduled Feeding of Laboratory Rodents in Their Home Cage
04:49

A Do-it-yourself System for Scheduled Feeding of Laboratory Rodents in Their Home Cage

Published on: June 6, 2025

Food web models: a plea for groups.

Stefano Allesina1, Mercedes Pascual

  • 1National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State St., Suite 300. Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA. allesina@nceas.ucsb.edu

Ecology Letters
|May 21, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

A new group-based model significantly improves predictions of food web structure. This ecological network model integrates compartments and roles, offering a more accurate framework for analyzing biological networks.

More Related Videos

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors
04:56

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors

Published on: January 25, 2018

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 23, 2026

A Do-it-yourself System for Scheduled Feeding of Laboratory Rodents in Their Home Cage
04:49

A Do-it-yourself System for Scheduled Feeding of Laboratory Rodents in Their Home Cage

Published on: June 6, 2025

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors
04:56

Assessment of Social Transmission of Food Preferences Behaviors

Published on: January 25, 2018

Area of Science:

  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
  • Network Theory
  • Systems Biology

Background:

  • The concept of groups is fundamental across biological disciplines, including evolution and ecology.
  • However, simple food web models lack explicit inclusion of this group concept.
  • Existing models struggle to accurately predict the structure of complex ecological networks.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To introduce the simplest possible group-based model for ecological network structure.
  • To demonstrate the model's superior performance in predicting large food web structures.
  • To integrate the concepts of compartments and roles within a unified network framework.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a novel, simplified group-based model for ecological networks.
  • Application and validation of the model against existing food web data.
  • Comparative analysis with current food web structure prediction models.

Main Results:

  • The group-based model substantially outperforms current models in predicting food web structure.
  • The model successfully merges network theory concepts of compartments and roles.
  • Demonstrated applicability to diverse biological and non-biological networks.

Conclusions:

  • Group-based modeling offers a more accurate approach to understanding ecological network structure.
  • This framework provides new avenues for examining the significance of groups in biological systems.
  • The model is timely, given the increasing availability of large-scale food web data.