Body size in ecological networks

Woodward, Guy; Ebenman, Bo; Emmerson, Mark; Montoya, José M.; Olesen, Jes; Valido, Alfredo; Warren, Philip H.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2005.04.005

Cited by 991 publications

(931 citation statements)

References 75 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

851

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In contrast, generalist consumers may rely on food selection to meet their nutritional demands (Huberty & Denno, 2006). Therefore, the integration between stoichiometry and food web analysis can allow us to trace the pathways and constraints of energy and matter within communities, providing a strong link between food web structure and function (Mulder et al., 2013; Sterner & Elser, 2002; Woodward et al., 2005). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caught in the web: Spider web architecture affects prey specialization and spider–prey stoichiometric relationships

Ludwig

Barbour

Guevara

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Quantitative approaches to predator–prey interactions are central to understanding the structure of food webs and their dynamics. Different predatory strategies may influence the occurrence and strength of trophic interactions likely affecting the rates and magnitudes of energy and nutrient transfer between trophic levels and stoichiometry of predator–prey interactions. Here, we used spider–prey interactions as a model system to investigate whether different spider web architectures—orb, tangle, and sheet‐tangle—affect the composition and diet breadth of spiders and whether these, in turn, influence stoichiometric relationships between spiders and their prey. Our results showed that web architecture partially affects the richness and composition of the prey captured by spiders. Tangle‐web spiders were specialists, capturing a restricted subset of the prey community (primarily Diptera), whereas orb and sheet‐tangle web spiders were generalists, capturing a broader range of prey types. We also observed elemental imbalances between spiders and their prey. In general, spiders had higher requirements for both nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) than those provided by their prey even after accounting for prey biomass. Larger P imbalances for tangle‐web spiders than for orb and sheet‐tangle web spiders suggest that trophic specialization may impose strong elemental constraints for these predators unless they display behavioral or physiological mechanisms to cope with nutrient limitation. Our findings suggest that integrating quantitative analysis of species interactions with elemental stoichiometry can help to better understand the occurrence of stoichiometric imbalances in predator–prey interactions.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Caught in the web: Spider web architecture affects prey specialization and spider–prey stoichiometric relationships

Ludwig

Barbour

Guevara

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Specifically, the model assumes a single underlying niche space, in which each species i is located at some niche location n i and probabilistically feeds on species located near location c i , the center of species is feeding range of width r i . Through certain patterns on these parameters, the PNM can capture a variety of empirically supported structural features, such as hierarchical feeding, compartmental structure, and body-size determined feeding niches [22][23][24]. The PNM can also capture cascade structure and inverse niche structure [13,25] (see also Supporting Information S4, Table S4).…”

Section: Fig 2 Interaction Typesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Untangling the roles of parasites in food webs with generative network models

Jacobs

Dunne

Moore

et al. 2015

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Food webs represent the set of consumer-resource interactions among a set of species that co-occur in a habitat, but most food web studies have omitted parasites and their interactions. Recent studies have provided conflicting evidence on whether including parasites changes food web structure, with some suggesting that parasitic interactions are structurally distinct from those among free-living species while others claim the opposite. Here, we describe a principled method for understanding food web structure that combines an efficient optimization algorithm from statistical physics called parallel tempering with a probabilistic generalization of the empirically well-supported food web niche model. This generative model approach allows us to rigorously estimate the degree to which interactions that involve parasites are statistically distinguishable from interactions among freeliving species, whether parasite niches behave similarly to free-living niches, and the degree to which existing hypotheses about food web structure are naturally recovered. We apply this method to the well-studied Flensburg Fjord food web and show that while predation on parasites, concomitant predation of parasites, and parasitic intraguild trophic interactions are largely indistinguishable from free-living predation interactions, parasite-host interactions are different. These results provide a powerful new tool for evaluating the impact of classes of species and interactions on food web structure to shed new light on the roles of parasites in food webs.

show abstract

“…Através do tamanho corporal, pode-se avaliar o risco de extinção de algumas espécies mesmo que pouco se conheça acerca de sua biologia, o que tem implicações práticas importantes para a conservação (De Marco, 1999). O tamanho corporal é também um poderoso preditor de relações tróficas (Cohen et al, 1993;Jennings et al, 2001;Woodward et al, 2005), o que facilita a construção de redes complexas e realistas de interações por meio de regras simples. Tais facilitadores permitem a construção de modelos para simular grandes números de espécies (Shin & Cury, 2001;van Nes et al, 2002;Mamedov & Udalov, 2002;Parrott & Kok, 2002), que podem inclusive auxiliar a investigar questões teóricas mais profundas como, por exemplo, a influência de características bionômicas sobre as regras de assembléia em comunidades naturais (Giacomini, 2006).…”

Section: Poder De Prediçãounclassified

Sete motivações teóricas para o uso da modelagem baseada no indivíduo em ecologia

Giacomini

2007

Acta Amaz.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

RESUMOA modelagem baseada no indivíduo tem sido crescentemente empregada para analisar processos ecológicos, desenvolver e avaliar teorias, bem como para fins de manejo da vida silvestre e conservação. Os modelos baseados no indivíduo (MBI) são bastante flexíveis, permitem o uso detalhado de parâmetros com maior significado biológico, sendo portanto mais realistas do que modelos populacionais clássicos, mais presos dentro de um rígido formalismo matemático. O presente artigo apresenta e discute sete razões para a adoção dos MBI em estudos de simulação na Ecologia: (1) a inerente complexidade de sistemas ecológicos, impassíveis de uma análise matemática formal; (2) processos populacionais são fenômenos emergentes, resultando das interações entre seus elementos constituintes (indivíduos) e destes com o meio; (3) poder de predição; (4) a adoção definitiva, por parte da Ecologia, de uma visão evolutiva; (5) indivíduos são entidades discretas; (6) interações são localizadas no espaço e (7) indivíduos diferem entre si. PALAVRAS-CHAVEModelagem baseada no indivíduo, Ecologia, Dinâmica de populações. Seven theoretical reasons for using individual-based modeling in Ecology ABSTRACTIndividual-based modeling has been increasingly used to analyze ecological processes, to develop and to evaluate theories, as well as to the management of wild life and conservation. The individual-based models (IBM) are quite flexible, allowing a detailed inclusion of parameters with greater biological meaning, therefore being more realistic than classical population models, which are too constrained inside mathematical formalisms. The present paper discuss seven reasons for IBM to be adopted in simulation studies inside Ecology: (1) ecological systems are inherently complex, being not open to a complete formal mathematical analysis; (2) population processes are emergent outputs from the interactions among individuals and the environment; (3) predictive power; (4) the evolutive view as a definitive guide for ecological studies; (5) individuals are discrete entities; (6) interactions are localized in space and (7) individuals present differences among them.

show abstract

Body size in ecological networks

Cited by 991 publications

References 75 publications

Caught in the web: Spider web architecture affects prey specialization and spider–prey stoichiometric relationships

Caught in the web: Spider web architecture affects prey specialization and spider–prey stoichiometric relationships

Untangling the roles of parasites in food webs with generative network models

Sete motivações teóricas para o uso da modelagem baseada no indivíduo em ecologia

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About