IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v449y2007i7162d10.1038_nature06154.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reconciling complexity with stability in naturally assembling food webs

Author

Listed:
  • Anje-Margriet Neutel

    (University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK
    Present address: British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK.)

  • Johan A. P. Heesterbeek

    (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Theoretical Epidemiology, Utrecht University)

  • Johan van de Koppel

    (Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW))

  • Guido Hoenderboom

    (Wageningen University and Research Centre)

  • An Vos

    (Alterra, Soil Science Centre, Wageningen University and Research Centre)

  • Coen Kaldeway

    (Alterra, Soil Science Centre, Wageningen University and Research Centre)

  • Frank Berendse

    (Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group, Wageningen University)

  • Peter C. de Ruiter

    (Alterra, Soil Science Centre, Wageningen University and Research Centre
    Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Utrecht University)

Abstract

Food web complexity Natural ecosystems consist of complex networks of feeding relations between organisms. Ecologists aim to understand what keeps such intricate networks stable, despite the fact that a disturbance may lead to all kinds of chain reactions of populations affecting each other, which might be expected to make these food webs very vulnerable. Anje-Margriet Neutel et al. now show that by keeping a relatively high proportion of ecosystem biomass at the base of food chains, preserving a 'pyramidal' shape, food webs grow in complexity while maintaining their stability. This work, based on a long-term study of below-ground food webs in sandy dune soils from two different areas in the Netherlands, reconciles 'May's paradox', which holds that randomly generated food webs decrease in stability as they increase in complexity.

Suggested Citation

  • Anje-Margriet Neutel & Johan A. P. Heesterbeek & Johan van de Koppel & Guido Hoenderboom & An Vos & Coen Kaldeway & Frank Berendse & Peter C. de Ruiter, 2007. "Reconciling complexity with stability in naturally assembling food webs," Nature, Nature, vol. 449(7162), pages 599-602, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:449:y:2007:i:7162:d:10.1038_nature06154
    DOI: 10.1038/nature06154
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06154
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature06154?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Zhibin & Yan, Chuan & Krebs, Charles J. & Stenseth, Nils Chr., 2015. "Ecological non-monotonicity and its effects on complexity and stability of populations, communities and ecosystems," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 312(C), pages 374-384.
    2. Chunming Li & Jianshe Chen & Xiaolin Liao & Aaron P. Ramus & Christine Angelini & Lingli Liu & Brian R. Silliman & Mark D. Bertness & Qiang He, 2023. "Shorebirds-driven trophic cascade helps restore coastal wetland multifunctionality," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    3. Frossard, Victor & Rimet, Frédéric & Perga, Marie-Elodie, 2018. "Causal networks reveal the dominance of bottom-up interactions in large, deep lakes," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 368(C), pages 136-146.
    4. Oimahmad Rahmonov & Sylwia Skreczko & Małgorzata Rahmonov, 2021. "Changes in Soil Features and Phytomass during Vegetation Succession in Sandy Areas," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Scotti, Marco & Bondavalli, Cristina & Bodini, Antonio, 2009. "Linking trophic positions and flow structure constraints in ecological networks: Energy transfer efficiency or topology effect?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(21), pages 3070-3080.
    6. Kostić, Vladimir R. & Cvetković, Ljiljana & Cvetković, Dragana Lj., 2016. "Improved stability indicators for empirical food webs," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 320(C), pages 1-8.
    7. Cvetković, Ljiljana & Kostić, Vladimir & Doroslovački, Ksenija & Cvetković, Dragana Lj., 2016. "Euclidean norm estimates of the inverse of some special block matrices," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 284(C), pages 12-23.
    8. Cropp, Roger & Norbury, John, 2009. "Simple predator–prey interactions control dynamics in a plankton food web model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(13), pages 1552-1565.
    9. Torres-Alruiz, Maria Daniela & Rodríguez, Diego J., 2013. "A topo-dynamical perspective to evaluate indirect interactions in trophic webs: New indexes," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 363-369.
    10. Skene, Keith R., 2013. "The energetics of ecological succession: A logistic model of entropic output," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 287-293.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:449:y:2007:i:7162:d:10.1038_nature06154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.