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Predator traits determine food-web architecture across ecosystems.

Ulrich Brose1,2, Phillippe Archambault3, Andrew D Barnes4,5,6

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Predator-prey body-mass ratios reveal universal food web architecture. Species traits predict these ratios, crucial for ecosystem stability and functioning across diverse environments.

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Food Web Dynamics
  • Ecosystem Stability

Background:

  • Natural ecosystems exhibit a universal food web architecture where predators are consistently larger than their prey.
  • High predator-prey body-mass ratios are theorized to stabilize communities and maintain ecosystem functioning.
  • Identifying these key interactions in complex food webs is challenging.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop predator-trait models for predicting average predator-prey body-mass ratios.
  • To analyze how species traits influence the body-size architecture of food webs.
  • To understand the role of body-size scaling in ecosystem stability.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a comprehensive database of 290 food webs from freshwater, marine, and terrestrial ecosystems globally.
  • Developed predator-trait models to predict body-mass ratios based on species characteristics.
  • Analyzed the impact of species traits, metabolic types, and movement strategies on body-size scaling.

Main Results:

  • Identified specific predator trait combinations, such as small vertebrates and large aquatic/aerial predators, associated with high body-mass ratios.
  • Demonstrated that predator traits significantly influence the slope of predator-prey body-mass scaling.
  • Showcased that incorporating metabolic and movement traits enhances the prediction accuracy of high body-mass ratio interactions.

Conclusions:

  • Species traits are key determinants of body-size architecture in natural food webs.
  • These trait-driven patterns in body-size scaling are fundamental to ecosystem stability and functioning.
  • The findings offer a pathway for effective community-level management of complex ecosystems.