Summary 1.A fundamental goal of ecological network research is to understand how the complexity observed in nature can persist and how this affects ecosystem functioning. This is essential for us to be able to predict, and eventually mitigate, the consequences of increasing environmental perturbations such as habitat loss, climate change, and invasions of exotic species. 2. Ecological networks can be subdivided into three broad types: 'traditional' food webs, mutualistic networks and host-parasitoid networks. There is a recent trend towards cross-comparisons among network types and also to take a more mechanistic, as opposed to phenomenological, perspective. For example, analysis of network configurations, such as compartments, allows us to explore the role of co-evolution in structuring mutualistic networks and host-parasitoid networks, and of body size in food webs. 3. Research into ecological networks has recently undergone a renaissance, leading to the production of a new catalogue of evermore complete, taxonomically resolved, and quantitative data. Novel topological patterns have been unearthed and it is increasingly evident that it is the distribution of interaction strengths and the configuration of complexity, rather than just its magnitude, that governs network stability and structure. 4. Another significant advance is the growing recognition of the importance of individual traits and behaviour: interactions, after all, occur between individuals. The new generation of high-quality networks is now enabling us to move away from describing networks based on species-averaged data and to start exploring patterns based on individuals. Such refinements will enable us to address more general ecological questions relating to foraging theory and the recent metabolic theory of ecology. 5. We conclude by suggesting a number of 'dead ends' and 'fruitful avenues' for future research into ecological networks.
It has been suggested that differences in body size between consumer and resource species may have important implications for interaction strengths, population dynamics, and eventually food web structure, function, and evolution. Still, the general distribution of consumer-resource body-size ratios in real ecosystems, and whether they vary systematically among habitats or broad taxonomic groups, is poorly understood. Using a unique global database on consumer and resource body sizes, we show that the mean body-size ratios of aquatic herbivorous and detritivorous consumers are several orders of magnitude larger than those of carnivorous predators. Carnivorous predator-prey body-size ratios vary across different habitats and predator and prey types (invertebrates, ectotherm, and endotherm vertebrates). Predator-prey body-size ratios are on average significantly higher (1) in freshwater habitats than in marine or terrestrial habitats, (2) for vertebrate than for invertebrate predators, and (3) for invertebrate than for ectotherm vertebrate prey. If recent studies that relate body-size ratios to interaction strengths are general, our results suggest that mean consumer-resource interaction strengths may vary systematically across different habitat categories and consumer types.
How many dimensions (trait‐axes) are required to predict whether two species interact? This unanswered question originated with the idea of ecological niches, and yet bears relevance today for understanding what determines network structure. Here, we analyse a set of 200 ecological networks, including food webs, antagonistic and mutualistic networks, and find that the number of dimensions needed to completely explain all interactions is small ( < 10), with model selection favouring less than five. Using 18 high‐quality webs including several species traits, we identify which traits contribute the most to explaining network structure. We show that accounting for a few traits dramatically improves our understanding of the structure of ecological networks. Matching traits for resources and consumers, for example, fruit size and bill gape, are the most successful combinations. These results link ecologically important species attributes to large‐scale community structure.
Enrichment of the stable isotopes 13 C and 15 N across trophic levels is a commonly used tool in studies on organic matter flow and food webs. However, there is still no accepted standard for pre-analysis sample preparation. Thus, potential methodological bias in single studies may hamper comparability and scalability of data from different sources. Sample CaCO 3 content introduces a positive bias in δ 13 C measurements and a negative bias in δ 15 N measurements. The acidification of samples to remove inorganic carbonate significantly reduces both δ 13 C and δ 15 N. As a standard procedure we recommend (1) acidifying samples with as little hydrochloric acid (HCl) as possible using the drop-by-drop technique, and (2) restraining from rinsing after HCl application.
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