TY - JOUR
T1 - Foraging adaptation and the relationship between food-web complexity and stability
AU - Kondoh, Michio
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2003/2/28
Y1 - 2003/2/28
N2 - Ecological theory suggests that complex food webs should not persist because of their inherent instability. "Real" ecosystems often support a large number of interacting species. A mathematical model shows that fluctuating short-term selection on trophic links, arising from a consumer's adaptive food choice, is a key to the long-term stability of complex communities. Without adaptive foragers, food-web complexity destabilizes community composition; whereas in their presence, complexity may enhance community persistence through facilitation of dynamical food-web reconstruction that buffers environmental fluctuations. The model predicts a linkage pattern consistent with field observations.
AB - Ecological theory suggests that complex food webs should not persist because of their inherent instability. "Real" ecosystems often support a large number of interacting species. A mathematical model shows that fluctuating short-term selection on trophic links, arising from a consumer's adaptive food choice, is a key to the long-term stability of complex communities. Without adaptive foragers, food-web complexity destabilizes community composition; whereas in their presence, complexity may enhance community persistence through facilitation of dynamical food-web reconstruction that buffers environmental fluctuations. The model predicts a linkage pattern consistent with field observations.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.1079154
DO - 10.1126/science.1079154
M3 - Article
C2 - 12610303
AN - SCOPUS:0037470443
VL - 299
SP - 1388
EP - 1391
JO - Science
JF - Science
SN - 0036-8075
IS - 5611
ER -