Individual-Based Food Webs

Woodward, Guy; Blanchard, Julia L.; Lauridsen, Rasmus B.; Edwards, François; Jones, J. Iwan; Figueroa, David; Warren, Philip H.; Petchey, Owen L.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-385005-8.00006-x

Cited by 92 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…This scale dependence is generally consistent with that in fish stomach content datasets [7]. Notably, however, our results showed that species averaging generates a misleading picture of real feeding relationships even though it does not affect PPMR (figure 2a), whereas previous studies addressed this problem based on the definition dependence of PPMR [7,14,15]. Therefore, it is important to investigate variability and the determinants of PPSR at the individual level.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Predator–prey body size relationships when predators can consume prey larger than themselves

2013

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As predator -prey interactions are inherently size-dependent, predator and prey body sizes are key to understanding their feeding relationships. To describe predator -prey size relationships (PPSRs) when predators can consume prey larger than themselves, we conducted field observations targeting three aquatic hemipteran bugs, and assessed their body masses and those of their prey for each hunting event. The data revealed that their PPSR varied with predator size and species identity, although the use of the averaged sizes masked these effects. Specifically, two predators had slightly decreased predator -prey mass ratios (PPMRs) during growth, whereas the other predator specialized on particular sizes of prey, thereby showing a clear positive size-PPMR relationship. We discussed how these patterns could be different from fish predators swallowing smaller prey whole.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Predator–prey body size relationships when predators can consume prey larger than themselves

2013

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“…The ADBM, Difference, Ratio and Difference/Ratio models have been used to generate the food webs presented here before, and have performed better than we have achieved here (Allesina, 2011;Petchey et al, 2008;Woodward et al, 2010), however to achieve this accuracy the generated food webs were constrained to have the same connectance as the empirical food webs, an approach not available when building a food web for the first time. Indeed there were instances here that the TPR and TSS of modelled food webs exceeded that of the WebBuilder function, but from the range of possible food webs generated by these models, it is impossible to select the most "accurate" one without knowledge of the expected number of links.…”

Section: -Strengths and Weaknesses Of The Webbuilder Functionmentioning

confidence: 84%

“…The WebBuilder function was validated on a collection of highly-resolved stream food webs which have had their trophic interactions characterised through direct observation; Broadstone Stream , Afon Hirnant Woodward et al, 2010), Tadnoll Brook ) and the summary food web for the replicated four reference Mill Stream sidechannels Woodward et al, 2012). The replicates for the Mill Stream data were pooled to aid comparison with the other food webs, which were all constructed as a single aggregate food web.…”

Section: -Comparing the Webbuilder Function With Empirical Food Websmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This statistic was used as it can be digested into its component parts to provide information on the types of differences between the empirical and generated food webs, and builds upon the most commonly used metric which is simply the proportion of links correctly generated (e.g. Allesina, 2011;Petchey et al, 2008;Woodward et al, 2010). This statistic was chosen over likelihood based approaches because we were not interested so much in the efficiency of these predictive models, more the biological realism of the generated food webs .…”

Section: -Comparing the Webbuilder Function With Empirical Food Websmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Joining the dots: An automated method for constructing food webs from compendia of published interactions

et al. 2015

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“…Natural communities exhibit regular size-abundance relationships and body size is a key factor determining ecological interactions [28]. The diversity of resources used by an individual increases with the size of the particular individual [29].…”

Section: The Measurement Of Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Importance of Insects in Agricultural Ecosystems

Jankielsohn¹

2018

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Sufficient food production for a growing human population has become an issue of global concern. Almost all of the world's fertile land is currently in use and arable land areas cannot be expanded significantly. The global challenge is to secure high and quality yields and to make agricultural production environmentally compatible. Insects have been hugely successful in terms of both species richness and abundance. Insects make up the most numerous group of organisms on earth, around 66% of all animal species, and being good dispersers and exploiters of virtually all types of organic matter, can be found almost everywhere, forming an important part of every ecosystem and are vital within our food supply chains performing valuable ecosystem services. Insects have been predominantly perceived as competitors in the race for survival. Herbivorous insects damage 18% of world agricultural production. Despite this damage less than 0.5 percentage of the total number of the known insect species are considered pests. Insect pests are created through the manipulation of habitats by humans, where crops are selected for larger size, higher yields, nutritious value, and are cultivated in monocultures for maximum production. This provides a highly favourable environment for the population increase of herbivorous insects. To ensure stable crop yields we need to change the management strategies of agroecosystems. We need to manage these systems in such a way that insects performing valuable ecosystem services are also incorporated into the system. This will ensure stable, resilient and sustainable systems in a constantly changing environment and will go a long way to ensure future food security. This paper examines the important role that insects generally play in ecosystems and how the services that insects provide can improve agricultural ecosystems.

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Individual-Based Food Webs

Cited by 92 publications

References 115 publications

Predator–prey body size relationships when predators can consume prey larger than themselves

Predator–prey body size relationships when predators can consume prey larger than themselves

Joining the dots: An automated method for constructing food webs from compendia of published interactions

The Importance of Insects in Agricultural Ecosystems

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