Stage structure alters how complexity affects stability of ecological networks

Ecology Letters

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2011, Pages 75-79

  Rudolf, V H W ^a   Lafferty, Kevin D ^b  

^a RICE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Body size; Complex life cycle; Diversity stability; Extinction; Food web; Host parasite; Ontogenetic niche shift; Predator prey; Species richness

Indexed keywords

EID: 78650058067     PISSN: 1461023X     EISSN: 14610248     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2010.01558.x     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Amundsen, P.A., Lafferty, K.D., Knudsen, R., Primicerio, R., Klemetsen, A. & Kuris, A.M. (2009). Food web topology and parasites in the pelagic zone of a subarctic lake. J. Anim. Ecol., 78, 563-572.
2. Bagdassarian, C.K., Dunham, A.E., Brown, C.G. & Rauscher, D. (2007). Biodiversity maintenance in food webs with regulatory environmental feedbacks. J. Theor. Biol., 245, 705-714.
3. Blanchard, J., Law, R., Castle, M. & Jennings, S. (in press). Coupled energy pathways and the resilience of size-structured food webs. Theor. Ecol, DOI:.
4. Borrvall, C., Ebenman, B. & Jonsson, T. (2000). Biodiversity lessens the risk of cascading extinction in model food webs. Ecol. Lett., 3, 131-136.
5. Brose, U., Williams, R.J. & Martinez, N.D. (2006). Allometric scaling enhances stability in complex food webs. Ecol. Lett., 9, 1228-1236.
6. Chapin, F.S., Zavaleta, E.S., Eviner, V.T., Naylor, R.L., Vitousek, P.M., Reynolds, H.L. et al. (2000). Consequences of changing biodiversity. Nature, 405, 234-242.
7. Cohen, J.E., Beaver, R.A., Cousins, S.H., DeAngelis, D.L., Goldwasser, L., Heong, K.L. et al. (1993). Improving food webs. Ecology, 74, 252-258.
8. De Roos, A.M., Schellekens, T., Van Kooten, T. & Persson, L. (2008). Stage-specific predator species help each other to persist while competing for a single prey. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 105, 13930-13935.
9. Dunne, J.A. & Williams, R.J. (2009). Cascading extinctions and community collapse in model food webs. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci., 364, 1711-1723.
10. Dunne, J.A., Williams, R.J. & Martinez, N.D. (2002). Network structure and biodiversity loss in food webs: robustness increases with connectance. Ecol. Lett., 5, 558-567.
11. Ebenman, B., Law, R. & Borrvall, C. (2004). Community viability analysis: the response of ecological communities to species loss. Ecology, 85, 2591-2600.
12. Eklof, A. & Ebenman, B. (2006). Species loss and secondary extinctions in simple and complex model communities. J. Anim. Ecol., 75, 239-246.
13. Fowler, M.S. (2010). Extinction cascades and the distribution of species interactions. Oikos, 119, 864-873.
14. Gross, T., Rudolf, L., Levin, S.A. & Dieckmann, U. (2009). Generalized models reveal stabilizing factors in food webs. Science, 325, 747-750.
15. Hechinger, R.F., Lafferty, K.D., McLaughlin, J.P., Fredensborg, B.L., Huspeni, T.C. et al. (in press). Food webs including parasites, biomass, body sizes, and life stages, for three California/Baja California estuaries. Ecology (accepted).
16. Hernandez, A.D. & Sukhdeo, M.V.K. (2008). Parasites alter the topology of a stream food web across seasons. Oecologia, 156, 613-624.
17. Huxham, M. & Raffaelli, D. (1995). Parasites and food-web patterns. J. Anim. Ecol., 64, 168-176.
18. Ings, T.C., Montoya, J.M., Bascompte, J., Blüthgen, N., Brown, L., Dormann, C.F. et al. (2009). Ecological networks- beyond food webs. J. Anim. Ecol., 78, 253-269.
19. Kuris, A.M., Hechinger, R.F., Shaw, J.C., Whitney, K.L., Aguirre-Macedo, L., Boch, C.A. et al. (2008). Ecosystem energetic implications of parasite and free-living biomass in three estuaries. Nature, 454, 515-518.
20. Lafferty, K.D. & Kuris, A.M. (2009). Parasites reduce food web robustness because they are sensitive to secondary extinction as illustrated by an invasive estuarine snail. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci., 364, 1659-1663.
21. Lafferty, K.D., Dobson, A.P. & Kuris, A.M. (2006). Parasites dominate food web links. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103, 11211-11216.
22. Law, R., Plank, M.J., James, A. & Blanchard, J.L. (2009). Size-spectra dynamics from stochastic predation and growth of individuals. Ecology, 90, 802-811.
23. Loreau, M., Naeem, S., Inchausti, P., Bengtsson, J., Grime, J.P., Hector, A. et al. (2001). Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning: current knowledge and future challenges. Science, 294, 804-808.
24. May, R.M. (1973). Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton Univ. Press, NJ, USA.
25. McCann, K.S. (2000). The diversity-stability debate. Nature, 405, 228-233.
26. McCann, K., Hastings, A. & Huxel, G.R. (1998). Weak trophic interactions and the balance of nature. Nature, 395, 794-798.
27. Mittelbach, G.G. & Osenberg, C.W. (1993). Stage-structured interactions in bluegill: consequences of adult resource variation. Ecology, 74, 2381-2394.
28. Montoya, J.M., Pimm, S.L. & Sole, R.V. (2006). Ecological networks and their fragility. Nature, 442, 259-264.
29. Okie, J.G. & Brown, J.H. (2009). Niches, body sizes, and the disassembly of mammal communities on the Sunda Shelf islands. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 106, 19679-19684.
30. Pennings, S.C., Nadeau, M.T. & Paul, V.J. (1993). Selectivity and growth of the generalist herbivore Dolabella auricularia feeding upon complementary resources. Ecology, 74, 879-890.
31. Persson, L. (1999). Trophic cascades: abiding heterogeneity and the trophic level concept at the end of the road Oikos, 85, 385-397.
32. Persson, L., De Roos, A.M., Claessen, D., Bystrom, P., Lovgren, J., Sjogren, S. et al. (2003). Gigantic cannibals driving a whole-lake trophic cascade. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 100, 4035-4039.
33. Petchey, O.L., Beckerman, A.P., Riede, J.O. & Warren, P.H. (2008). Size, foraging, and food web structure. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 105, 4191-4196.
34. Polis, G.A. (1991). Complex trophic interactions in deserts: an empirical critique of food-web theory. Am. Nat., 138, 123-155.
35. Polis, G.A. & Strong, D.R. (1996). Food web complexity and community dynamics. Am. Nat., 147, 813-846.
36. Rudolf, V.H.W. (2007a). Consequences of stage-structured predators: cannibalism, behavioral effects and trophic cascades. Ecology, 88, 2991-3003.
37. Rudolf, V.H.W. (2007b). The interaction of cannibalism and omnivory: consequences for community dynamics. Ecology, 88, 2697-2705.
38. Rudolf, V.H.W. & Armstrong, J. (2008). Emergent impacts of cannibalism and size refuges in the prey on intraguild predation systems. Oecologia, 157, 675-686.
39. Sala, O.E., Chapin, F.S., Armesto, J.J., Berlow, E., Bloomfield, J., Dirzo, R. et al. (2000). Biodiversity- global biodiversity scenarios for the year 2100. Science, 287, 1770-1774.
40. Schreiber, S.J. & Rudolf, V.H.W. (2008). Crossing habitat boundaries: coupling dynamics of ecosystems through complex life cycles. Ecol. Lett., 11, 576-587.
41. Terborgh, J., Lopez, L., Nunez, P., Rao, V.M., Shahabuddin, G., Orihuela, G. et al. (2001). Ecological meltdown in predator-free forest fragments. Science, 294, 1923-1926.
42. Thompson, R.M., Mouritsen, K.N. & Poulin, R. (2005). Importance of parasites and their life cycle characteristics in determining the structure of a large marine food web. J. Anim. Ecol., 74, 77-85.
43. Torchin, M.E., Byers, J.E. & Huspeni, T.C. (2005). Differential parasitism of native and introduced snails: replacement of a parasite fauna. Biol. Invasions, 7, 885-894.
44. Warren, C., Pascual, M., Lafferty, K.D. & Kuris, A.M. (2010). Parasitic networks in food webs: clustering, nestedness, and the inverted niche model. Theor. Ecol., 3, 285-294.
45. Werner, E.E. (1988). Size, scaling and the evolution of complex life cycles. In: Size-Structured Populations (eds Ebenman, B. & Persson, L.). Springer, New York, pp. 60-81.
46. Werner, E.E. & Gilliam, J.F. (1984). The ontogenetic niche and species interactions in size structured populations. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 15, 393-425.
47. Williams, R.J. & Martinez, N.D. (2000). Simple rules yield complex food webs. Nature, 404, 180-183.
48. Woodward, G. & Hildrew, A.G. (2002). Body-size determinants of niche overlap and intraguild predation within a complex food web. J. Anim. Ecol., 71, 1063-1074.
49. Yodzis, P. & Innes, S. (1992). Body size and consumer-resource dynamics. Am. Nat., 139, 1151-1175.