The Enigma of Food Chain Length: Absence of Theoretical Evidence for Dynamic Constraints

Sterner, Robert W.; Bajpai, Anita; Adams, T.

doi:10.2307/2265962

Cited by 43 publications

(52 citation statements)

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“…Similarly, we found in early simulations for Paper V that strong intra-specific competition of flexible consumers lessened the risk of overexploitation of novel prey following a rewiring (data not shown). These results are in line with previous findings of consumer intraspecific competition increasing resistance to single primary extinctions in food webs (Thebault et al 2007) and increasing dynamical stability (resilience: Saunders 1978, Sterner et al 1997population variability: Rall et al 2008). …”

Section: Consumer's Intraspecific Competition and Extinction Risksupporting

confidence: 93%

Extinctions in Ecological Communities : direct and indirect effects of perturbation on biodiversity

Curtsdotter¹

2014

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Section: Consumer's Intraspecific Competition and Extinction Risksupporting

confidence: 93%

Extinctions in Ecological Communities : direct and indirect effects of perturbation on biodiversity

Curtsdotter¹

2014

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“…intraspecific interactions that negatively affect population size. By extending the assumption of self-regulation to higher trophic levels, a more realistic assumption accommodating density-dependent feedback and intraspecific competition etc., Sterner et al [71] showed that longer food chains are actually more resilient. This suggests that longer food chains are not less stable and, theoretically, not limited by disturbance, potentially explaining the lack of a clear effect on FCL in the broader literature [11], [25] and supported by our findings here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Productivity, Disturbance and Ecosystem Size Have No Influence on Food Chain Length in Seasonally Connected Rivers

et al. 2013

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The food web is one of the oldest and most central organising concepts in ecology and for decades, food chain length has been hypothesised to be controlled by productivity, disturbance, and/or ecosystem size; each of which may be mediated by the functional trophic role of the top predator. We characterised aquatic food webs using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from 66 river and floodplain sites across the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia to determine the relative importance of productivity (indicated by nutrient concentrations), disturbance (indicated by hydrological isolation) and ecosystem size, and how they may be affected by food web architecture. We show that variation in food chain length was unrelated to these classic environmental determinants, and unrelated to the trophic role of the top predator. This finding is a striking exception to the literature and is the first published example of food chain length being unaffected by any of these determinants. We suggest the distinctive seasonal hydrology of northern Australia allows the movement of fish predators, linking isolated food webs and potentially creating a regional food web that overrides local effects of productivity, disturbance and ecosystem size. This finding supports ecological theory suggesting that mobile consumers promote more stable food webs. It also illustrates how food webs, and energy transfer, may function in the absence of the human modifications to landscape hydrological connectivity that are ubiquitous in more populated regions.

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“…Short food chains have been suggested to be inherently more stable than long ones (Pimm and Lawton 1977), although Sterner et al (1997) have recently questioned this premise.…”

Section: Food-chain Lengthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributions of stable-isotope data to elucidating food webs of Mediterranean rocky littoral fishes

2000

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The food webs of rocky infra-littoral ecosystems in the Mediterranean have been little studied. In this investigation stable isotopes and dietary data were compared in an attempt to describe features of the food webs concerned. δC and δN were determined for plants, invertebrates and fishes from the Bay of Calvi, Corsica. Dietary data were derived from the literature. δC of plants ranged from -8.59‰ to -33.74‰, of benthic invertebrates from -17.0‰ to -20.52‰, of planktonic invertebrates from -20.08‰ to -22.34‰ and of fishes from -16.27‰ to -19.59‰. δN was generally greater at higher trophic levels. δN of plants was 0.95-2.92‰, of benthic invertebrates 1.69-6.54‰, of planktonic invertebrates 3.51-6.82‰ and of fishes 4.63-9.77‰. C enrichment tended to be associated with benthic food chains andC depletion with planktonic chains. Stable-isotope data suggested more varied diets for many species than implied by gut-contents data. Omnivory and trophic plasticity were widespread, and many consumers fed lower down the food chain than previous studies had suggested. Both stable-isotope and gut-contents analysis resolved differences between fishes feeding on planktonic and benthic prey and indicated that the herbivorous fish Sarpa salpa fed on a diet substantially different from that of other fishes. Zooplankton were important in the diets of several consumers (both primary and secondary), as was plankton derived detritus. One species of fish previously identified as planktivorous was shown to feed largely on benthic organisms, whilst several species of benthic invertebrates may feed on plankton-derived detritus. Although herbivores seemed to obtain most of their C from macroalgae, δN data suggested that many of these animals supplemented their intake of N, although gut-contents analysis did not provide evidence for such uptake. The isotopic data have elucidated several features of the food web which we would not otherwise have detected.

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The Enigma of Food Chain Length: Absence of Theoretical Evidence for Dynamic Constraints

Cited by 43 publications

References 0 publications

Extinctions in Ecological Communities : direct and indirect effects of perturbation on biodiversity

Extinctions in Ecological Communities : direct and indirect effects of perturbation on biodiversity

Productivity, Disturbance and Ecosystem Size Have No Influence on Food Chain Length in Seasonally Connected Rivers

Contributions of stable-isotope data to elucidating food webs of Mediterranean rocky littoral fishes

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