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Science 8 February 2008:
Vol. 319. no. 5864, pp. 804 - 807
DOI: 10.1126/science.1148310
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Reports

Direct and Indirect Effects of Resource Quality on Food Web Structure

Tibor Bukovinszky,1*{dagger} F. J. Frank van Veen,2{dagger} Yde Jongema,1 Marcel Dicke1

The diversity and complexity of food webs (the networks of feeding relationships within an ecological community) are considered to be important factors determining ecosystem function and stability. However, the biological processes driving these factors are poorly understood. Resource quality affects species interactions by limiting energy transfer to consumers and their predators, affecting life history and morphological traits. We show that differences in plant traits affect the structure of an entire food web through a series of direct and indirect effects. Three trophic levels of consumers were influenced by plant quality, as shown by quantitative herbivore–parasitoid–secondary parasitoid food webs. We conclude, on the basis of our data, that changes in the food web are dependent on both trait- and density-mediated interactions among species.

1 Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University, Post Office Box 8031, 6700 EH Wageningen, Netherlands.
2 Natural Environment Research Council Centre for Population Biology, Division of Biology, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Ascot, Berkshire SL5 7PY, UK.

{dagger} These authors contributed equally to this work.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tibor.bukovinszky{at}wur.nl

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)