Quantification of food web structure based on metabolic rules and application to real food webs

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26870832
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Conservation of biological resources; Environmental and ecological symbiosis
• Research Institution: National Institute for Environmental Studies
• Principal Investigator: Kadoya Taku 国立研究開発法人国立環境研究所, 生物・生態系環境研究センター, 主任研究員 (40451843)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 群集生態学 / 食物網

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Quantifying food web structure is essential to understand food web dynamics and stability. For example, energy flux from the detritus to other organisms in an ecosystem affects food web dynamics. By developing a series of methods for　reconstructing food web and applying it to real ecosystem, we tested a hypothesis that the greater diversity of litter consuming detritivores promotes energy flow between the resource and top predators in agricultural ponds. We found that the diversity and abundance of detritivores had a significant positive effect on the relative contribution rate of detritus to the diets of predators, even after confounding effects were controlled for. Our study is the first to demonstrate bottom-up effects of detritivore diversity on energy flow in food webs.

Free Research Field

群集生態学