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Foraging Adaptation and the Relationship Between Food-Web Complexity and Stability
Michio Kondoh
Ecological theory suggests that complex food webs should not
persist because of their inherent instability. "Real" ecosystemsoften support a large number of interacting species. A mathematicalmodel shows that fluctuating short-term selection on trophic links,arising from a consumer's adaptive food choice, is a key to thelong-term stability of complex communities. Without adaptive foragers,food-web complexity destabilizes community composition; whereasin
their presence, complexity may enhance community persistencethrough
facilitation of dynamical food-web reconstruction thatbuffers
environmental fluctuations. The model predicts a linkagepattern
consistent with field observations.
Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University, Kamitanakami,
Otsu 520-2113, Japan.
Present address: Cardiff School of Biosciences, Cardiff University,
Post Office Box 915, Cardiff CF10 3TL, UK. E-mail: kondohm{at}cf.ac.uk
Fluctuations in density of an outbreak species drive diversity cascades in food webs.
E. S. Eveleigh, K. S. McCann, P. C. McCarthy, S. J. Pollock, C. J. Lucarotti, B. Morin, G. A. McDougall, D. B. Strongman, J. T. Huber, J. Umbanhowar, et al. (2007)
PNAS
104, 16976-16981
|Abstract »|Full Text »|PDF »
Foraging biology predicts food web complexity.
A. P. Beckerman, O. L. Petchey, and P. H. Warren (2006)
PNAS
103, 13745-13749
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P. A. Rossignol, J. Orme-Zavaleta, and A. M. Rossignol (2006)
Environmental Geosciences
13, 55-63
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