9 research outputs found
Modern models of trophic meta-communities
Dispersal and foodweb dynamics have long been studied in separate models. However, over the past decades, it has become abundantly clear that there are intricate interactions between local dynamics and spatial patterns. Trophic meta-communities, i.e. meta-foodwebs, are very complex systems that exhibit complex and often counterintuitive dynamics. Over the past decade, a broad range of modelling approaches have been used to study these systems. In this paper, we review these approaches and the insights that they have revealed. We focus particularly on recent papers that study trophic interactions in spatially extensive settings and highlight the common themes that emerged in different models. There is overwhelming evidence that dispersal (and particularly intermediate levels of dispersal) benefits the maintenance of biodiversity in several different ways. Moreover, some insights have been gained into the effect of different habitat topologies, but these results also show that the exact relationships are much more complex than previously thought, highlighting the need for further research in this area.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Integrative research perspectives on marine conservation’
Evolutionary food web model based on body masses gives realistic networks with permanent species turnover
The networks of predator-prey interactions in ecological systems are
remarkably complex, but nevertheless surprisingly stable in terms of long term
persistence of the system as a whole. In order to understand the mechanism
driving the complexity and stability of such food webs, we developed an
eco-evolutionary model in which new species emerge as modifications of existing
ones and dynamic ecological interactions determine which species are viable.
The food-web structure thereby emerges from the dynamical interplay between
speciation and trophic interactions. The proposed model is less abstract than
earlier evolutionary food web models in the sense that all three evolving
traits have a clear biological meaning, namely the average body mass of the
individuals, the preferred prey body mass, and the width of their potential
prey body mass spectrum. We observed networks with a wide range of sizes and
structures and high similarity to natural food webs. The model networks exhibit
a continuous species turnover, but massive extinction waves that affect more
than of the network are not observed