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A robust measure of food web intervality.


ABSTRACT: Intervality of a food web is related to the number of trophic dimensions characterizing the niches in a community. We introduce here a mathematically robust measure for food web intervality. It has previously been noted that empirical food webs are not strictly interval; however, upon comparison to suitable null hypotheses, we conclude that empirical food webs actually do exhibit a strong bias toward contiguity of prey, that is, toward intervality. Further, our results strongly suggest that empirically observed species and their diets can be mapped onto a single dimension. This finding validates a critical assumption in the recently proposed static niche model and provides guidance for ongoing efforts to develop dynamic models of ecosystems.

SUBMITTER: Stouffer DB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1748169 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A robust measure of food web intervality.

Stouffer Daniel B DB   Camacho Juan J   Amaral Luís A Nunes LA  

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20061204 50


Intervality of a food web is related to the number of trophic dimensions characterizing the niches in a community. We introduce here a mathematically robust measure for food web intervality. It has previously been noted that empirical food webs are not strictly interval; however, upon comparison to suitable null hypotheses, we conclude that empirical food webs actually do exhibit a strong bias toward contiguity of prey, that is, toward intervality. Further, our results strongly suggest that empi  ...[more]

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