Journal ArticleDOI
Are food webs divided into compartments
Stuart L. Pimm,John H. Lawton +1 more
TLDR
Drawing on a number of alternative approaches, the null hypothesis that real food webs are not significantly more compartmented than chance alone dictates is tested.Abstract:
SUMMARY compartmented. (3) Alternative food web models are briefly described. These incorporate biologically more realistic assumptions, and do not neccessarily predict that food webs are more likely to be stable if they are divided into blocks. (4) Compartments exist in food webs if the interactions within the web are grouped into subsystems: that is, if species interact strongly only with species in their own sub- systems, and interact little, if at all, with species outside it. (5) Drawing on a number of alternative approaches, we test the null hypothesis that real food webs are not significantly more compartmented than chance alone dictates. (6) Analyses of published food webs show that subsystems can only be detected where the webs span major habitat divisions, for example a forest and a prairie, or adjacent freshwater and terrestrial habitats. These compartments are imposed by the natural histories of the component species. There are no grounds for believing that dynamical constraints, i.e. a requirement for persistent natural food webs to be stable, play any part in imposing compartments.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
The complexity and stability of ecosystems
TL;DR: Early studies suggested that simple ecosystems were less stable than complex ones, but later studies came to the opposite conclusion as discussed by the authors. Confusion arose because of the many different meanings of "complexity" and "stability".
Journal ArticleDOI
The nested assembly of plant-animal mutualistic networks
TL;DR: It is shown that mutualistic networks are highly nested; that is, the more specialist species interact only with proper subsets of those species interacting with the more generalists, which generates highly asymmetrical interactions and organizes the community cohesively around a central core of interactions.
Journal ArticleDOI
The modularity of pollination networks.
TL;DR: If these key species go extinct, modules and networks may break apart and initiate cascades of extinction, Thus, species serving as hubs and connectors should receive high conservation priorities.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological networks and their fragility
TL;DR: E ecological networks, in which species are linked together, either directly or indirectly through intermediate species, have well defined patterns that both illuminate the ecological mechanisms underlying them and promise a better understanding of the relationship between complexity and ecological stability.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological networks--beyond food webs.
Thomas C. Ings,José M. Montoya,José M. Montoya,Jordi Bascompte,Nico Blüthgen,Lee E. Brown,Carsten F. Dormann,Francois Edwards,Francois Edwards,David J. Figueroa,David J. Figueroa,Ute Jacob,J. Iwan Jones,Rasmus B. Lauridsen,Mark E. Ledger,Hannah Lewis,Jens M. Olesen,F. J. Frank van Veen,Phil H. Warren,Guy Woodward +19 more
TL;DR: A number of 'dead ends' and 'fruitful avenues' are suggested for future research into ecological networks by suggesting a new catalogue of evermore complete, taxonomically resolved, and quantitative data.
References
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Book
Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems
Robert M. May,N. MacDonald +1 more
TL;DR: Preface vii Preface to the Second Edition Biology Edition 1.
Journal ArticleDOI
Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity
TL;DR: It is suggested that local animal species diversity is related to the number of predators in the system and their efficiency in preventing single species from monopolizing some important, limiting, requisite in the marine rocky intertidal.
Journal ArticleDOI
Will a large complex system be stable
Robert M. May,Robert M. May +1 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that large complex systems which are assembled (connected) at random may be expected to be stable up to a certain critical level of connectance, and then, as this increases, to suddenly become unstable.
Journal ArticleDOI
The dynamics of arthropod predator-prey systems.
TL;DR: In this paper, an arthropod predador-prey system is modeled using difference equation models to describe population changes using analytical models framed in difference equations, and the detailed biological processes of insect predator-parasitoid interactions may be understood.