Modeling Food Webs: Exploring Unexplained Structure Using Latent Traits

Modeling food webs: exploring unexplained structure using latent traits.

Several stochastic models have tried to capture the architecture of food webs. This approach is interesting, but it is limited by the fact that different assumptions can yield similar results. To overcome this limitation, we develop a purely statistical approach. Body size in terms of an optimal ratio between prey and predator is used as explanatory variable. In 12 observed food webs, this mode...

Variation in network structure among food webs

Qualitative Reasoning about Food Webs: Exploring Alternative Representations

The trophic interaction is perhaps one of the most fundamental processes in ecology. From such pairwise interactions between organisms and their energy supplies, all ecological communities are built. Here, we explore three alternative qualitative representations of the basic trophic interaction, and discuss their potential to serve as basic building blocks for research and teaching about food c...

Food webs

Ecosystems, whether they are forests, lakes or coral reefs, consist of a diverse range of species that interact with each other in many ways. As ecologists we want to understand how these complex systems function as a whole and how they respond to human impacts such as harvesting and environmental change. A mechanistic understanding of the underlying biological processes will allow us to predic...

Modelling Size Structured Food Webs Using a Modified Niche Model with Two Predator Traits

The structure of food webs is frequently described using phenomenological stochastic models. A prominent example, the niche model, was found to produce artificial food webs resembling real food webs according to a range of summary statistics. However, the size structure of food webs generated by the niche model and real food webs has not yet been rigorously compared. To fill this void, I use a ...