dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaThe impact of non-linear functional responses on the long-term evolution of food web structure
| Authors | Barbara Drossel, Alan McKane, Christopher Quince |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0401025 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0401025 |
Abstract
We investigate the long-term web structure emerging in evolutionary food web models when different types of functional responses are used. We find that large and complex webs with several trophic layers arise only if the population dynamics is such that it allows predators to focus on their best prey species. This can be achieved using modified Lotka-Volterra or Holling/Beddington functional responses with effective couplings that depend on the predator's efficiency at exploiting the prey, or a ratio-dependent functional response with adaptive foraging. In contrast, if standard Lotka-Volterra or Holling/Beddington functional responses are used, long-term evolution generates webs with almost all species being basal, and with additionally many links between these species. Interestingly, in all cases studied, a large proportion of weak links result naturally from the evolution of the food webs.
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"abstract": "We investigate the long-term web structure emerging in evolutionary food web\nmodels when different types of functional responses are used. We find that\nlarge and complex webs with several trophic layers arise only if the population\ndynamics is such that it allows predators to focus on their best prey species.\nThis can be achieved using modified Lotka-Volterra or Holling/Beddington\nfunctional responses with effective couplings that depend on the predator\u0027s\nefficiency at exploiting the prey, or a ratio-dependent functional response\nwith adaptive foraging. In contrast, if standard Lotka-Volterra or\nHolling/Beddington functional responses are used, long-term evolution generates\nwebs with almost all species being basal, and with additionally many links\nbetween these species. Interestingly, in all cases studied, a large proportion\nof weak links result naturally from the evolution of the food webs.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0401025",
"authors": [
"Barbara Drossel",
"Alan McKane",
"Christopher Quince"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.PE",
"cond-mat.stat-mech"
],
"title": "The impact of non-linear functional responses on the long-term evolution of food web structure",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0401025"
},
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