What determines the structure of a food web?

This blog post is provided by Tomás I. Marina and Leonardo A. Saravia and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the paper “Ecological network assembly: how the regional metaweb influences local food webs”, which was recently published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Leonardo is a senior researcher and a professor at Universidad Nacional de General Sarmiento (UNGS), near Buenos Aires city, though in the coming weeks … Continue reading What determines the structure of a food web?

Indirect interactions through shared predation can drive food-web responses to environmental change: lessons learnt from a lake mesocosm experiment

This blog post is provided by Fernando Chaguaceda and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for the article “Short-term apparent mutualism drives responses of aquatic prey to increasing productivity“, which was recently published in Journal of Animal Ecology. Mobile generalist predators that feed on more than one prey are common in nature, from the majestic whales that spread their feeding habitats from pole to pole to small animals … Continue reading Indirect interactions through shared predation can drive food-web responses to environmental change: lessons learnt from a lake mesocosm experiment

Up silt creek without a niche: how do stream food webs respond to sedimentation?

This blog post is provided by Francis J. Burdon, Angus McIntosh, and Jon Harding and tells the #StoryBehindThePaper for their article ”Mechanisms of landscape disturbance: evidence from landscape disturbance”. Food webs represent a holistic systems approach to characterizing patterns of biodiversity and energy flow by describing trophic interactions between consumers and resources. However, how these ecological networks respond to natural and anthropogenic perturbations remains poorly … Continue reading Up silt creek without a niche: how do stream food webs respond to sedimentation?