Allometric degree distributions facilitate food-web stability

Sonja B. Otto (), Björn C. Rall and Ulrich Brose
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Sonja B. Otto: Darmstadt University of Technology, Schnittspahnstrasse 10, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
Björn C. Rall: Darmstadt University of Technology, Schnittspahnstrasse 10, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany
Ulrich Brose: Darmstadt University of Technology, Schnittspahnstrasse 10, 64287 Darmstadt, Germany

Nature, 2007, vol. 450, issue 7173, 1226-1229

Abstract: Body size and diversity Maintaining global biodiversity is dependent on understanding which parameters influence food-web stability and how groups of species respond to their variation. Data from food chains involving three invertebrate species across five natural food webs — one from a stream, one from a pond, one from a lake, one terrestrial and one marine — reveal how body-mass ratios between consumer species and their resources allow species coexistence. Empirical body-mass ratios of species in these natural networks are consistent with the predictions of a bioenergetic consumer-resource model. Thus, simple relationships between body sizes and food-web structures may determine food-web stability.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1038/nature06359

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