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Structural asymmetry and the stability of diverse food webs

Nature volume 442, pages 265–269 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Untangling the influence of human activities on food-web stability and persistence is complex given the large numbers of species and overwhelming number of interactions within ecosystems. Although biodiversity has been associated with stability, the actual structures and processes that confer stability to diverse food webs remain largely unknown. Here we show that real food webs are structured such that top predators act as couplers of distinct energy channels that differ in both productivity and turnover rate. Our theoretical analysis shows that coupled fast and slow channels convey both local and non-local stability to food webs. Alarmingly, the same human actions that have been implicated in the loss of biodiversity also directly erode the very structures and processes that we show to confer stability on food webs.

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Figure 1: Food webs are structured such that top predators couple distinct energy channels.
Figure 2: Differing productivities and turnover rates between coupled energy channels result in increased local food-web stability and decreased consumer population synchrony.
Figure 3: Coupled fast and slow energy channels allow for non-local food-web stability.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. de Bruyn and J. Rasmussen for helpful comments. This work was supported by an NSERC grant to K.M., and by grants from the US National Science Foundation and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis to J.C.M.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 2W1, Canada

    Neil Rooney, Kevin McCann & Gabriel Gellner

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado, 80639, USA

    John C. Moore

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  1. Neil Rooney
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  2. Kevin McCann
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  3. Gabriel Gellner
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  4. John C. Moore
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Correspondence to Neil Rooney.

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Reprints and permissions information is available at npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Figures

Supplementary Figure 1a details aquatic food webs, following Figure 1. Supplementary Figure 1b details terrestrial food webs, following Figure 1. Supplementary Figure 2 details theoretical food web configuration and equations. (PDF 477 kb)

Supplementary Tables

Supplementary Table 1 details production and biomass values for aquatic and terrestrial food webs after Table 1. Supplementary Table 2 details parameter definitions and values for the theoretical model. Supplementary Table 3 details real food web examples of human activities eroding food web structures. Supplementary Table 4a details taxon identification by number for Figure 1a and Supplementary Figure 1a. Supplementary Table 4b details taxon identification by number for Figure 1b and Supplementary Figure 1b. (PDF 579 kb)

Supplementary Methods

Protocol for the calculation of trophic position and percent basal resource for all food webs (PDF 56 kb)

Supplementary Notes

Full references for citations in Supplementary Table 3 (PDF 133 kb)

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Rooney, N., McCann, K., Gellner, G. et al. Structural asymmetry and the stability of diverse food webs. Nature 442, 265–269 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04887

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