Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness
Trophic niches condition the energetic performance of species within food webs providing a vital link between food web assembly, species diversity, and functioning of ecosystems. Our understanding of this important link is, however, limited by the lack of empirical tools that can be easily applied t...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-10-01
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| Series: | Water |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2828 |
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| author | Yulun Guo Tao Wang García Molinos Jorge Huan Zhang Peiyu Zhang Min Zhang Jun Xu |
| author_facet | Yulun Guo Tao Wang García Molinos Jorge Huan Zhang Peiyu Zhang Min Zhang Jun Xu |
| author_sort | Yulun Guo |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Trophic niches condition the energetic performance of species within food webs providing a vital link between food web assembly, species diversity, and functioning of ecosystems. Our understanding of this important link is, however, limited by the lack of empirical tools that can be easily applied to compare entire food webs at regional scales. By comparison, with different a priori synthetic models defined according to specific assembly rules (i.e., purely random, limiting similarity, and niche filtering), we demonstrate that a set of food web properties (trophic richness, evenness, and divergence) are controlled by ecological processes. We further demonstrate that although both limiting similarity and niche filtering are statistically significant assembly processes shaping our studied lake food webs, their relative importance is richness-dependent, and contextual to the specific food web property under consideration. Our results have both important theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the observed richness-dependent variation on food web properties contradicts the common criticism on food web theory that food web properties are roughly scale-invariant. Practically, these properties can help avoiding spurious conclusions, while providing useful information for multiple food web niche spaces supporting the ecosystem functioning. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:42:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-a3f04e4a28a6455dbd67a9eae40fdca5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4441 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T15:42:36Z |
| publishDate | 2020-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water |
| spelling | doaj.art-a3f04e4a28a6455dbd67a9eae40fdca52023-11-20T16:41:43ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412020-10-011210282810.3390/w12102828Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species RichnessYulun Guo0Tao Wang1García Molinos Jorge2Huan Zhang3Peiyu Zhang4Min Zhang5Jun Xu6State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430000, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430000, ChinaArctic Research Center, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 001-0021, JapanState Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430000, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430000, ChinaFreshwater Aquaculture Collaborative Innovation Center of Hubei Province, Hubei Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Pond Aquaculture, College of Fisheries, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430000, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430000, ChinaTrophic niches condition the energetic performance of species within food webs providing a vital link between food web assembly, species diversity, and functioning of ecosystems. Our understanding of this important link is, however, limited by the lack of empirical tools that can be easily applied to compare entire food webs at regional scales. By comparison, with different a priori synthetic models defined according to specific assembly rules (i.e., purely random, limiting similarity, and niche filtering), we demonstrate that a set of food web properties (trophic richness, evenness, and divergence) are controlled by ecological processes. We further demonstrate that although both limiting similarity and niche filtering are statistically significant assembly processes shaping our studied lake food webs, their relative importance is richness-dependent, and contextual to the specific food web property under consideration. Our results have both important theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the observed richness-dependent variation on food web properties contradicts the common criticism on food web theory that food web properties are roughly scale-invariant. Practically, these properties can help avoiding spurious conclusions, while providing useful information for multiple food web niche spaces supporting the ecosystem functioning.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2828fish assemblagesfloodplain lakesfood web assemblyniche spacetrophic diversitytrophic divergence |
| spellingShingle | Yulun Guo Tao Wang García Molinos Jorge Huan Zhang Peiyu Zhang Min Zhang Jun Xu Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness Water fish assemblages floodplain lakes food web assembly niche space trophic diversity trophic divergence |
| title | Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness |
| title_full | Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness |
| title_fullStr | Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness |
| title_full_unstemmed | Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness |
| title_short | Differential Responses of Food Web Properties to Opposite Assembly Rules and Species Richness |
| title_sort | differential responses of food web properties to opposite assembly rules and species richness |
| topic | fish assemblages floodplain lakes food web assembly niche space trophic diversity trophic divergence |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/12/10/2828 |
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