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Science 2 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5876, pp. 658 - 661
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156269
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Reports

A General Model for Food Web Structure

Stefano Allesina,1,2* David Alonso,1,3 Mercedes Pascual1,4

A central problem in ecology is determining the processes that shape the complex networks known as food webs formed by species and their feeding relationships. The topology of these networks is a major determinant of ecosystems' dynamics and is ultimately responsible for their responses to human impacts. Several simple models have been proposed for the intricate food webs observed in nature. We show that the three main models proposed so far fail to fully replicate the empirical data, and we develop a likelihood-based approach for the direct comparison of alternative models based on the full structure of the network. Results drive a new model that is able to generate all the empirical data sets and to do so with the highest likelihood.

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Natural Science Building, 830 North University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
2 National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, 735 State Street, Suite 300, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, USA.
3 Community and Conservation Ecology Group, Center for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, Post Office Box 14, 9750 AA Haren, Netherlands.
4 Santa Fe Institute, 1399 Hyde Park Road, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: allesina{at}nceas.ucsb.edu

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