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Science 13 November 1987:
Vol. 238. no. 4829, pp. 956 - 960
DOI: 10.1126/science.3672136
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Articles

Science, Vol 238, Issue 4829, 956-960
Copyright © 1987 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Environmental correlates of food chain length

F Briand and JE Cohen

World Conservation Center, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland.

In 113 community food webs from natural communities, the average and maximal lengths of food chains are independent of primary productivity, contrary to the hypothesis that longer food chains should arise when more energy is available at their base. Environmental variability alone also does not appear to constrain average or maximal chain length. Environments that are three dimensional or solid, however, such as a forest canopy or the water column of the open ocean, have distinctly longer food chains than environments that are two dimensional or flat, such as a grassland or lake bottom.


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