| | |
| | |
Stat |
Members: 3647 Articles: 2'515'004 Articles rated: 2609
11 May 2024 |
|
| | | |
|
Article overview
| |
|
Phylogenetic constraints and adaptation explain food-web structure | Marie-France Cattin
; Louis-Félix Bersier
; Carolin Banasek-Richter
; Richard Baltensperger
; Jean-Pierre Gabriel
; | Date: |
26 Feb 2004 | Journal: | Nature, 427 (6977), 835-9 | Abstract: | Food webs are descriptions of who eats whom in an ecosystem. Although extremely complex and variable, their structure possesses basic regularities. A fascinating question is to find a simple model capturing the underlying processes behind these repeatable patterns. Until now, two models have been devised for the description of trophic interactions within a natural community. Both are essentially based on the concept of ecological niche, with the consumers organized along a single niche dimension; for example, prey size. Unfortunately, they fail to describe adequately recent and high-quality data. Here, we propose a new model built on the hypothesis that any species’ diet is the consequence of phylogenetic constraints and adaptation. Simple rules incorporating both concepts yield food webs whose structure is very close to real data. Consumers are organized in groups forming a nested hierarchy, which better reflects the complexity and multidimensionality of most natural systems. | Source: | PubMed, pmid14985761 doi: 10.1038/nature02327 | Services: | Forum | Review | Favorites |
|
|
No review found.
Did you like this article?
Note: answers to reviews or questions about the article must be posted in the forum section.
Authors are not allowed to review their own article. They can use the forum section.
|
| |
|
|
|