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When do evolutionary food web models generate complex networks?

Korinna T Allhoff1, Barbara Drossel

  • 1Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Darmstadt University of Technology, Hochschulstraße 6, 64283 Darmstadt, Germany. allhoff@fkp.tu-darmstadt.de

Journal of Theoretical Biology
|June 20, 2013
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals that evolutionary food web models generate robust and stable ecosystems. This stability arises from constrained predator-prey niche differences and strong interspecies competition, preventing extreme specializations.

Keywords:
Body massEvolutionary assemblyMutationStabilityTrophic structure

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Theoretical Ecology

Background:

  • Food web models simulate ecosystem development through species addition and population dynamics.
  • Emergent food web structures are complex outcomes of evolutionary and ecological rules.
  • Previous models often required specific assumptions like adaptive foraging or allometric scaling.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate the robustness and stability of the Loeuille and Loreau (2005) evolutionary food web model.
  • Identify the underlying mechanisms responsible for generating diverse and stable food web networks.
  • Understand why this model avoids collapse into trivial structures without specific adaptive traits.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of an evolutionary food web model where body mass is the sole evolving trait.
  • Examination of population dynamics, species establishment, and extinction processes.
  • Evaluation of constraints on niche differences and feeding ranges.

Main Results:

  • The model exhibits remarkable robustness and generates complex, stable food webs.
  • Stability is attributed to narrow constraints on predator-prey niche value differences and feeding ranges.
  • Strong competition among similar species allows multiple species to coexist at trophic levels.

Conclusions:

  • The model's stability stems from preventing extreme specialists or generalists.
  • Constrained niche width and strong competition are key drivers of emergent food web complexity.
  • Findings suggest that conditions stabilizing other models achieve similar effects by limiting niche extremes.