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Ecosystem size determines food-chain length in lakes

Nature volume 405, pages 1047–1049 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Food-chain length is an important characteristic of ecological communities1: it influences community structure2, ecosystem functions1,2,3,4 and contaminant concentrations in top predators5,6. Since Elton7 first noted that food-chain length was variable among natural systems, ecologists have considered many explanatory hypotheses1,4,8,9, but few are supported by empirical evidence4,10,11. Here we test three hypotheses that predict food-chain length to be determined by productivity alone (productivity hypothesis)4,10,12,13, ecosystem size alone (ecosystem-size hypothesis)14,15 or a combination of productivity and ecosystem size (productive-space hypothesis)7,16,17,18. The productivity and productive-space hypotheses propose that food-chain length should increase with increasing resource availability; however, the productivity hypothesis does not include ecosystem size as a determinant of resource availability. The ecosystem-size hypothesis is based on the relationship between ecosystem size and species diversity, habitat availability and habitat heterogeneity14,15. We find that food-chain length increases with ecosystem size, but that the length of the food chain is not related to productivity. Our results support the hypothesis that ecosystem size, and not resource availability, determines food-chain length in these natural ecosystems.

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Figure 1: Hypothesized relationships between food-chain length and ecosystem size, and between food-chain length and productivity.
Figure 2: Relationships between maximum trophic position and ecosystem size or productivity.
Figure 3: The increase in maximum trophic position is caused by both changes in top predator species and increases in the trophic position of each top predator.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation fisheries biologists and managers, as well as J. Beemer, T. Butler, E. Mills, L. Rudstam, D. Parish, B. Pientka, L. Puth, M. Vogelsang and N. Vochick for their help collecting fish and other samples; K. L. Lovell, J. Burdet and C. Alpha for laboratory and field assistance; and T. E. Dawson, L. O. Hedin, M. H. Olson and L. M. Puth for comments. This research was supported by the Kieckhefer Adirondack Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Research Training Group for Biogeochemistry and Environmental Change at Cornell University and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Training grant for Human Accelerated Environmental Change at Cornell University and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Corson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, 14853, New York, USA

    David M. Post & Nelson G. Hairston Jr

  2. Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Box AB, Millbrook, 12545, New York, USA

    David M. Post & Michael L. Pace

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  1. David M. Post
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Correspondence to David M. Post.

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Post, D., Pace, M. & Hairston, N. Ecosystem size determines food-chain length in lakes. Nature 405, 1047–1049 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35016565

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