Food Web Structure in Temporally-Forced Ecosystems

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2015

Publication Title

Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Volume

30

Issue

11

First Page

662

Last Page

672

Abstract

Temporal variation characterizes many of Earth's ecosystems. Despite this, little is known about how food webs respond to regular variation in time, such as occurs broadly with season. We argue that season, and likely any periodicity, structures food webs along a temporal axis in an analogous way to that previously recognized in space; predators shift their diet as different resource compartments and trophic levels become available through time. These characteristics are likely (i) central to ecosystem function and stability based on theory, and (ii) widespread across ecosystem types based on empirical observations. The temporal food web perspective outlined here could provide new insight into the ecosystem-level consequences of altered abiotic and biotic processes that might accompany globally changing environments.

DOI

10.1016/j.tree.2015.09.001

ISSN

01695347

PubMed ID

26452520

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