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Carlos J Melián1, Vlastimil Křivan, Florian Altermatt

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Density-dependent dispersal, not density-independent, best explains food web structure. This mechanism reveals a critical distance threshold impacting species similarity across sites in heterogeneous landscapes.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Food web dynamics
  • Spatial ecology

Background:

  • Nonrandom dispersal is crucial for food web structure.
  • The role of density-dependent versus density-independent dispersal remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare density-dependent and density-independent dispersal models for food web structuring.
  • To assess model fit with empirical food web data in homogeneous and heterogeneous landscapes.

Main Methods:

  • Developed population-dispersal models contrasting dispersal types.
  • Fitted models to empirical food web data.
  • Analyzed effects on alpha, beta, and gamma tritrophic richness.

Main Results:

  • Density-dependent dispersal models best fit empirical data for alpha, beta, and gamma tritrophic richness.
  • Density-dependent dispersal predicted a critical distance threshold for site similarity, also observed empirically.
  • Density-independent dispersal models did not predict this threshold.

Conclusions:

  • Density-dependent dispersal is a key driver of food web structure in heterogeneous landscapes.
  • This mechanism influences local and regional species richness and distance-decay relationships.
  • Dispersal symmetry is more important than preferential dispersal from central to peripheral sites.