Bioenergetic approaches to terrestrial food webs – new traits for new habitats
Food webs tend to be strongly size-structured, with larger, slower-growing consumers eating broader ranges of smaller, faster-growing resources (Williams & Martinez 2000, Brose et al. 2006). Bioenergetic network models use species’ body size as a key trait to constrain the feeding and vital rates of species (via “allometric scaling laws”), creating plausible simulations of food…
Characterizing vulnerable dynamics of pollination and seed dispersal mutualisms at low density
Pollination and seed dispersal mutualisms support a large amount of biodiversity and productivity in terrestrial ecosystems (Janzen 1985). However, both the plants and animals that participate in these mutualisms are facing global declines due to anthropogenic perturbations such as climate change, habitat destruction, and invasive species (Traveset & Richardson 2006, 2014, Tylianakis et al. 2008, Potts et al. 2010,…
Population dynamics of mutualism are robustly stable, but exhibit characteristic thresholds at low density
“Mutualism has always been the ‘bastard child’ of community ecology” from Community Ecology (Mittelbach 2012) Mutualisms are a ubiquitous but remarkably diverse set of interactions, with species alternately providing food, defense, habitat, and facilitating growth and reproduction for each other in different circumstances. Though known to be critical for many ecosystem functions, mutualisms have not been…
Pollination mutualisms increase diversity, stability, and function in complex ecosystems
“Aside from their pollination function, pollinators consume and are consumed by other members of ecological communities, which influences the controversial effects of pollinators on ecological networks. Here the authors show that when mutualists such as pollinators are introduced into food webs, they increase ecosystem biodiversity, stability, and function.” – Editor’s Summary The role of mutualism in…
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