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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 9, 2026

Linking Predation Risk, Herbivore Physiological Stress and Microbial Decomposition of Plant Litter
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Causal links indicating ecosystem functioning in food webs.

András Hidas1,2,3, Ferenc Jordán4,5

  • 1Doctoral School of Environmental Sciences, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary.

Community Ecology : CE
|December 8, 2025
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This study introduces interaction asymmetry analysis to reveal causal links in complex food webs. Higher ecosystem biomass correlates with stronger bottom-up effects and increased consumer diversity, aiding ecosystem health assessment.

Keywords:
Asymmetric interactionsFood webTopologyTotal biomass

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Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Network Analysis
  • Ecosystem Dynamics

Background:

  • Food web complexity obscures regulatory effects.
  • Identifying top-down or bottom-up control is challenging.
  • Topological importance (TI) metrics can incorporate indirect interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To apply interaction asymmetry analysis for examining causality in food webs.
  • To identify critical interactions using topological importance (TI) metrics.
  • To evaluate the method's performance against existing network metrics.

Main Methods:

  • Applied interaction asymmetry analysis to 34 food web models.
  • Constructed asymmetry graphs to create directed networks.
  • Compared asymmetry metrics with widely used network metrics.

Main Results:

  • Ecosystems with higher total biomass showed stronger bottom-up causal links.
  • Greater consumer diversity was linked to stronger bottom-up effects.
  • Asymmetry-based metrics effectively identified causal interactions.

Conclusions:

  • Interaction asymmetry analysis provides robust quantitative indicators of causality.
  • This method offers a powerful tool for assessing ecosystem functioning and health.
  • The approach simplifies the analysis of complex food web dynamics.