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...
Life Histories01:29

Life Histories

Constrained by limited energy and resources, organisms must compromise between offspring quantity and parental investment. This trade-off is represented by two primary reproductive strategies; K-strategists produce few offspring but provide substantial parental support, whereas r-strategists produce much progeny that receives little care. These strategies are related to an organism’s survival likelihood across its lifespan, which is represented by a survivorship curve. Three general types of...
Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies00:51

Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies

Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance, and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species reproduce only once in their lifetime, often investing most available resources into that single reproductive event. Iteroparous species, by contrast, reproduce multiple times over their lifetimes, typically allocating fewer resources to any single...
Evolution of New Traits in Microbes01:24

Evolution of New Traits in Microbes

Microorganisms evolve rapidly due to their large population sizes and short generation times, often exhibiting measurable changes within days under laboratory conditions. Natural selection acts on standing genetic variation, enabling the retention and amplification of beneficial traits that confer fitness advantages in changing environments.Adaptive Pigment Regulation in RhodobacterIn Rhodobacter, a genus of purple non-sulfur bacteria, light-harvesting pigments such as bacteriochlorophyll and...
Limits to Natural Selection01:38

Limits to Natural Selection

Organisms that are well-adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. However, natural selection does not lead to perfectly adapted organisms. Several factors constrain natural selection.For one, natural selection can only act upon existing genetic variation. Hypothetically, redtusks may enhance elephant survival by deterring ivory-seeking poachers. However, if there are no gene variants—or alleles—for redtusks, natural selection cannot increase the prevalence of...

You might also read

Related Articles

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

Sort by
Same author

Carbon source acts as a deterministic filter shaping microbial succession and rare-abundant decoupling in soil bacterial communities.

ISME communications·2026
Same author

Large-scale environmental DNA survey reveals niche axes of a regional coastal fish community.

Scientific reports·2026
Same author

Quantifying and exploring state-dependent ecological interactions from time series data using Gaussian process regression.

Journal of the Royal Society, Interface·2025
Same author

Rescue or murder? The effect of prey adaptation to the predator subjected to fisheries.

Ecology and evolution·2024
Same author

Biodiversity and Constrained Information Dynamics in Ecosystems: A Framework for Living Systems.

Entropy (Basel, Switzerland)·2023
Same author

Synthetic model ecosystem of 12 cryopreservable microbial species allowing for a noninvasive approach.

Bio Systems·2023

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae
07:26

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Published on: April 23, 2016

Food-chain length and adaptive foraging.

Michio Kondoh1, Kunihiko Ninomiya

  • 1Faculty of Science and Technology, Ryukoku University, 1-5 Yokotani, Seta Oe-cho, Otsu 520-2143, Japan. mkondoh@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|June 12, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Food-chain length in ecosystems is complex. Predator foraging adaptation makes chain length less dependent on resource availability, unlike simpler models, explaining real-world observations.

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Theoretical Ecology
  • Food Web Dynamics

Background:

  • Food-chain length is a key ecological characteristic, but its determinants, especially the role of resource availability, remain debated.
  • Classical theory predicts longer food chains with increased resources, but empirical evidence from natural systems is limited and often contradictory.
  • Previous studies often used simplified models, failing to account for dynamic food web changes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the influence of predator adaptive foraging on food-chain length.
  • To reconcile conflicting empirical observations regarding resource availability and food-chain length.
  • To explore how community complexity and adaptability interact with resource availability.

Main Methods:

  • Development of a theoretical model incorporating dynamic food-web reconstruction.

More Related Videos

Protocol for Assessing the Relative Effects of Environment and Genetics on Antler and Body Growth for a Long-lived Cervid
09:09

Protocol for Assessing the Relative Effects of Environment and Genetics on Antler and Body Growth for a Long-lived Cervid

Published on: August 8, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 22, 2026

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae
07:26

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Published on: April 23, 2016

Protocol for Assessing the Relative Effects of Environment and Genetics on Antler and Body Growth for a Long-lived Cervid
09:09

Protocol for Assessing the Relative Effects of Environment and Genetics on Antler and Body Growth for a Long-lived Cervid

Published on: August 8, 2017

  • Simulation of predator adaptive foraging behavior.
  • Analysis of the relationship between resource availability, species richness, connectance, and food-chain length.

    • Main Results:

    • Adaptive foraging by predators leads to food-chain length that is invariant or decreases with resource availability, contrasting with non-adaptive models.
    • Maximum food-chain length decreases more sharply with resource availability in more complex communities (higher species richness or connectance).
    • The model explains why resource availability effects differ between simple microcosms and complex natural ecosystems.

    Conclusions:

    • Predator foraging adaptation is a critical factor influencing food-chain length dynamics.
    • Community complexity and predator adaptability interact to shape food-chain length responses to resource availability.
    • The findings help resolve discrepancies in empirical studies and explain habitat size effects on food chains.