Food chain length and omnivory determine the stability of a marine subtidal food web

Journal of Animal Ecology

Volumn 80, Issue 3, 2011, Pages 586-594

  Long, Zachary T ^a,c   Bruno, John F ^b   Duffy, J Emmett ^a  

^a VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE   (United States)

^b The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

Covariance effect; Food chain length; Food web; Lagodon rhombiode; Omnivory; Portfolio effect; Stability; Subtidal; Trophic cascade

Indexed keywords

ABUNDANCE; BIOLOGICAL INVASION; COVARIANCE ANALYSIS; FISH; FOOD CHAIN; FOOD WEB; HABITAT LOSS; HARVESTING; HERBIVORE; MARINE ENVIRONMENT; MICROALGA; NUMERICAL MODEL; OMNIVORY; POPULATION DECLINE; PREDATOR; SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS; STABILIZATION; SUBTIDAL ENVIRONMENT; TAXONOMY;

AMPHIPODA; ANIMAL; ARTICLE; BIOTA; CYPRINODONTIFORMES; ECOSYSTEM; FEEDING BEHAVIOR; FOOD CHAIN; ISOPODA; PALAEMONIDAE; PERCIFORMES; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION DYNAMICS; SEA; SEAWEED; TIME;

AMPHIPODA; ANIMALS; BIOTA; ECOSYSTEM; FEEDING BEHAVIOR; FOOD CHAIN; FUNDULIDAE; ISOPODA; OCEANS AND SEAS; PALAEMONIDAE; PERCIFORMES; POPULATION DENSITY; POPULATION DYNAMICS; SEAWEED; TIME FACTORS;

ALGAE; LAGODON;

EID: 79953320820     PISSN: 00218790     EISSN: 13652656     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2656.2010.01800.x     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Arim, M. & Marquet, P.A. (2004) Intraguild predation: a widespread interaction related to species biology. Ecology Letters, 7, 557-564.
2. Borer, E.T., Seabloom, E.W., Shurin, J.B., Anderson, K.E., Blanchette, C.A., Broitman, B., Cooper, S.D. & Halpern, B.S. (2005) What determines the strength of a trophic cascade? Ecology, 86, 528-537.
3. Borrvall, C., Ebenman, B. & Jonsson, T. (2000) Biodiversity lessens the risk of cascading extinction in model food webs. Ecology Letters, 3, 131-136.
4. Bruno, J.F. & O'Connor, M.I. (2005) Cascading effects of predator diversity and omnivory in a marine food web. Ecology Letters, 8, 1048-1056.
5. Byrnes, J.E., Reynolds, P.L. & Stachowicz, J.J. (2007) Invasions and extinctions reshape coastal marine food webs. PLoS ONE, 2, e295.
6. Cottingham, K.L., Brown, B.L. & Lemon, J.T. (2001) Biodiversity may regulate the temporal variability of ecological systems. Ecology Letters, 4, 72-85.
7. Diehl, S. & Feissel, M. (2000) Effects of enrichment on three-level food chains with omnivory. American Naturalist, 155, 200-218.
8. Doak, D.F., Bigger, D., Harding, E.K., Marvier, M.A., O'Malley, R.E. & Thomson, D. (1998) The statistical inevitability of stability-diversity relationships in community ecology. American Naturalist, 151, 264-276.
9. Duffy, J.E. (1990) Amphipods on seaweeds: partners or pests? Oecologia, 83, 267-276.
10. Duffy, J.E. (2003) Biodiversity loss, trophic skew and ecosystem functioning. Ecology Letters, 6, 680-687.
11. Duffy, J.E. & Hay, M.E. (2000) Strong impacts of grazing amphipods on the organization of a benthic community. Ecological Monographs, 70, 237-263.
12. Edgar, G.J. (1991) Artificial algae as habitats for mobile epifauna: factors affecting colonization in a Japanese Sargassum bed. Hydrobiologia, 226, 111-118.
13. Emmerson, M. & Yearsley, J.M. (2004) Weak interactions, omnivory and emergent food-web properties. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 271, 397-405.
14. Fagan, W.F. (1997) Omnivory as a stabilizing feature in natural communities. American Naturalist, 150, 554-567.
15. Hairston, N.G., Smith, F.E. & Slobodkin, L.B. (1960) Community structure, population control, and competition. American Naturalist, 94, 421-425.
16. Halpern, B.S., Borer, E.T., Seabloom, E.W. & Shurin, J.B. (2005) Predator effects on herbivore and plant stability. Ecology Letters, 8, 189-194.
17. Hay, M.E. (1986) Associational plant defenses and the maintenance of species-diversity - turning competitors into accomplices. American Naturalist, 128, 617-641.
18. Holt, R.D. & Polis, G.A. (1997) A theoretical framework for intraguild predation. American Naturalist, 149, 745-764.
19. Holyoak, M. & Sachdev, S. (1998) Omnivory and the stability of simple food webs. Oecologia, 117, 413-419.
20. Jackson, J.B.C., Kirby, M.X., Berger, W.H., Bjorndal, K.A., Botsford, L.W., Bourque, B.J., Bradbury, R.H., Cooke, R., Erlandson, J., Estes, J.A., Hughes, T.P., Kidwell, S., Lange, C.B., Lenihan, H.S., Pandolfi, J.M., Peterson, C.H., Steneck, R.S., Tegner, M.J. & Warner, R.R. (2001) Historical overfishing and the recent collapse of coastal ecosystems. Science, 293, 629-638.
21. Jespersen, A.M. & Christoffersen, K. (1987) Measurements of chlorophylla from phytoplankton using ethanol as extraction solvent. Archiv Fur Hydrobiologie, 109, 445-454.
22. Lawler, S.P. & Morin, P.J. (1993) Food web architecture and population dynamics in laboratory microcosms of protists. American Naturalist, 141, 675-686.
23. Lawton, J.H. & Warren, P.H. (1988) Static and dynamic explanations for patterns in foods webs. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 3, 242-245.
24. Lehman, C.L. & Tilman, D. (2000) Biodiversity, stability, and productivity in competitive communities. American Naturalist, 156, 534-552.
25. Lhomme, J.-P. & Winkel, T. (2002) Diversity-stability relationships in community ecology: re-examination of the portfolio effect. Theoretical Population Biology, 62, 271-279.
26. May, R.M. (1973) Stability and Complexity in Model Ecosystems. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
27. McCann, K.S. (2000) The diversity-stability debate. Nature, 405, 228-233.
28. McCann, K. & Hastings, A. (1997) Re-evaluating the omnivory-stability relationship in food webs. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 264, 1249-1254.
29. Menge, B.A. (1995) Indirect effects in marine intertidal interaction webs: patterns and importance. Ecological Monographs, 65, 21-74.
30. Morin, P.J. & Lawler, S.P. (1996) Effects of food chain length and omnivory on population dynamics in experimental food webs. Food Webs: Integration of Pattern and Dynamics (eds G.A. Polis & K.O. Winemiller). pp. 218-230, Chapman and Hall, New York, NY.
31. Neutel, A.M., Heesterbeek, J.A.P. & de Ruiter, P.C. (2002) Stability in real food webs: weak links in long loops. Science, 296, 1120-1123.
32. O'Connor, N.E. & Bruno, J.F. (2007) Predatory fish loss affects the structure and functioning of a model marine food web. Oikos, 116, 2027-2038.
33. Pauly, D., Christensen, V., Dalsgaard, J., Froese, R. & Torres, F.J. (1998) Fishing down marine food webs. Science, 279, 860-863.
34. Pimm, S.L. (1984) The complexity and stability of ecosystems. Nature, 307, 321-326.
35. Pimm, S.L. & Kitching, R.L. (1987) Number of trophic levels in ecological communities. Oikos, 50, 302-307.
36. Pimm, S.L. & Lawton, J.H. (1977) Number of trophic levels in ecological communities. Nature, 268, 329-331.
37. Polis, G.A. (1998) Ecology - Stability is woven by complex webs. Nature, 395, 744-745.
38. Polis, G.A., Myers, C.A. & Holt, R.D. (1989) The ecology and evolution of intraguild predation: potential competitors that eat each other. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 20, 297-330.
39. Polis, G.A. & Strong, D.R. (1996) Food web complexity and community dynamics. American Naturalist, 147, 813-846.
40. Romanuk, T.N., Vogt, R.J. & Kolasa, J. (2009) Ecological realism and mechanisms by which diversity begets stability. Oikos, 118, 819-828.
41. de Ruiter, P.C., Wolters, V. & Moore, J.C. (2005) Dynamic Food Webs: Multispecies Assemblages, Ecosystem Development and Environmental Change. Elsevier, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA.
42. Shurin, J.B., Borer, E.T., Seabloom, E.W., Anderson, K., Blanchette, C.A., Broitman, B., Cooper, S.D. & Halpern, B.S. (2002) A cross-ecosystem comparison of the strength of trophic cascades. Ecology Letters, 5, 785-791.
43. Steiner, C.F. (2005) Temporal stability of pond zooplankton assemblages. Freshwater Biology, 50, 105-112.
44. Sterner, R.W., Bajpai, A. & Adams, T. (1997) The enigma of food chain length: absence of theoretical evidence for dynamic constraints. Ecology, 78, 2258-2262.
45. Tanabe, K. & Namba, T. (2005) Omnivory creates chaos in simple food web models. Ecology, 86, 3411-3414.
46. Thompson, R.M., Hemberg, M., Starzomski, B.M. & Shurin, J.B. (2007) Trophic levels and trophic tangles: the prevalence of omnivory in real food webs. Ecology, 88, 612-617.
47. Tilman, D. (1996) Biodiversity: population versus ecosystem stability. Ecology, 77, 350-363.
48. Tilman, D. (1999) The ecological consequences of changes in biodiversity: a search for general principles. Ecology, 80, 1455-1474.
49. Tilman, D. & Lehman, C. (2001) Biodiversity, composition, and ecosystem processes: theory and concepts. The Functional Consequences of Biodiversity: Empirical Progress and Theoretical Extensions (eds A.P. Kinzig, S.W. Pacala & D. Tilman), pp. 9-41. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
50. Tilman, D., Lehman, C.L. & Bristow, C.E. (1998) Diversity-stability relationships: statistical inevitability or ecological consequence? The American Naturalist, 151, 277-282.
51. Tilman, D., Reich, P.B. & Knops, J.M.H. (2006) Biodiversity and ecosystem stability in a decade-long grassland experiment. Nature, 441, 629-632.
52. Vandermeer, J. (2006) Omnivory and the stability of food webs. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 238, 497-504.