A Critical Reexamination of Food Web Patterns in Real Ecosystems

这项研究的中心目的是对生态系统中营养结构的所谓经验“定律”进行批判性的重新评估。将组装第一个专门为表示大规模生态系统的营养结构而设计的全系统数据库。努力的重点将放在威斯康星州的小石湖。这是一个长期的研究地点，在那里已经收集了许多所需的信息，一个研究团队已经同意合作解决该系统的营养结构。这项研究的协议将包括延长对与该湖有关的野外站的访问，以便协调解决所涉及的主要子系统内部和之间的摄食关系。最初的重点将放在水环境上，因为它代表了食物网法律所依据的系统中最大的一部分，而且因为在这里构建合理完整的食物网的机会可能最高。这些数据将代表着比目前食物网络文献中提供的至少一个数量级的改进。这项研究将包括的细节包括：对所涉及的物种及其取食强度的全面和公平的解决方案；食物网络结构随季节和个体发育的时间变异性；聚集网络中能量和物质流动的大小；相互作用强度；研究不完整子系统对食物网络格局的影响；以及食物网络结构的变化，系统地结合了主要到次要的相互作用。在将被问到的具体问题中，许多食品网概括所基于的数据如何代表真实的系统？在这里，来自文件系统的可信数据将被用来统计检验是否可以相信大量可疑数据的收集。

The central aim of this research is to provide a critical reappraisal of so-called empirical "laws" for trophic structure in ecosystems. The first whole-system data base designed specifically to represent the trophic structure of a large-scale ecosystem will be assembled. Efforts will be focused on Little Rock Lake, Wisconsin. This represents a long-term study site where much of the desired information has already been gathered and where a research team has agreed to collaborate to resolve the trophic structure of the system. The protocol for this study will involve an extended visit to the field station associated with the lake in order to coordinate the resolution of feeding relations within and between the major subsystems involved. The initial focus will be on the aquatic environment because it represents the largest fraction of the systems upon which the food web laws are based, and because the chance of constructing reasonable complete food webs is likely to be highest here. These data will represent at lease an order of magnitude improvement over what is currently available in the food web literature. Among the details that will be included in this study are: a full and more even-handed resolution of species involved and their feeding intensities; temporal variability in food web structure with season and ontogeny; the magnitudes of energy and material flows in aggregated webs; interaction strength; the effects on food web patterns of studying incomplete subsystems; and the variation in food web structure with the systematic incorporation of major to minor interactions. Among the specific questions that will be asked is how representative of real systems are the data upon which many food web generalizations are based? Here, credible data from the documented systems will be used to statistically test whether a large collection of questionable data are to be believed.