Can current food web models explain the structural stability of observed food webs?
Fox, Jeremy*,1, 1 University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada ABSTRACT- Qualitiative food webs describe ′who eats who,′ thereby summarizing community tophic structure. Qualitative food webs from different systems exhibit similar, non-random structural features, suggesting that general rules govern food web structure. Current food web models successfully predict many aspects of food web structure (e.g., number of omnivorous species) from knowledge of species richness and connectance (fraction of possible predator-prey links that are actually observed). Here I examine the ability of three food web models (cascade, niche, and nested hierarchy models) plus a random null model to predict a new measure of food web structure, structural stability. Structural stability summarizes ′overall′ qualitative food web structure in a single number, and is sensitive to small changes in that structure. Structural stabilities of observed webs differ significantly from those of random webs, and are poorly p
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