Origin of compartmentalization in food webs
Guimera R, Stouffer DB, Sales-Pardo M, Leicht EA, Newman MEJ, Amaral LANEcology 91, 2941 - 2951 (2010)
Times cited: 43
Abstract
The response of an ecosystem to perturbations is mediated by both
antagonistic
and facilitative interactions between species. It is thought that a
community’s resilience
depends crucially on the food web—the network of trophic
interactions—and on the food
web’s degree of compartmentalization. Despite its ecological importance,
compartmentalization
and the mechanisms that give rise to it remain poorly understood. Here
we investigate
several definitions of compartments, propose ways to understand the
ecological meaning of
these definitions, and quantify the degree of compartmentalization of
empirical food webs. We
find that the compartmentalization observed in empirical food webs can
be accounted for
solely by the niche organization of species and their diets. By
uncovering connections between
compartmentalization and species’ diet contiguity, our findings help us
understand which
perturbations can result in fragmentation of the food web and which can
lead to catastrophic
effects. Additionally, we show that the composition of compartments can
be used to address
the long-standing question of what determines the ecological niche of a
species.