A Critical Re-Examination of Food Web Patterns in Real Ecosystems

这项研究的主要目的是提供一个 对所谓的营养学经验定律的批判性重新评价 结构在真实的生态系统中。 与研究人员合作， 在威斯康星州大学鳟鱼湖站， 威斯康星州自然资源部，第一个全系统 数据库专门设计来代表营养 一个大规模的生态系统的结构将被组装。 因为 水生环境代表了生态系统中 作为食物网法律的基础，这项工作将侧重于 小石城湖，一个长期的研究地点， 作为正在进行的酸雨实验的一部分， 监测项目，并承诺产生一套24 非常详细的食物网数据集。 一项试点研究证实， 令人惊讶的大量营养物质的可用性 这里的信息和相对较高的分类和 可以尝试的时间分辨率。 详细内容 这将包括在这项研究中：一个完整的，更均匀的- 对所涉及的物种和它们的喂养进行手动解决 强度;食物网结构的时间变化， 季节和个体发育;研究对食物网模式的影响 不完整的子系统;以及食物网结构的变化 通过系统地改变数据的分辨率 通过将大调合并为小调 交互. 以下是一些问题， 问道 数据是如何代表真实的系统的 有哪些食物网的概括是基于？ 有多依赖 食物网特性对时间和分类学分辨率的影响 数据？ 什么时候像食物链长度这样的属性 是受环境的限制，还是仅仅受数据质量的限制？

The central aim of this proposed research is to provide a critical reappraisal of so-called empirical laws of trophic structure in real ecosystems. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Wisconsin Trout Lake Station, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the first whole-system data base designed specifically to represent the trophic structure of a large-scale ecosystem will be assembled. Because aquatic environments represent the largest fraction of systems upon which the food web laws are based, this effort will focus on Little Rock Lake, a long-term study site which has been extensively studied as part of an ongoing experimental acid rain monitoring project, and which promises to yield a suite of 24 highly detailed food web data sets. A pilot study confirmed the availability of a surprisingly large amount of trophic information here and the relatively high degree of taxonomic and temporal resolution that could be attempted. Amount the details that will be included in this study are: a full and more even- handed resolution of the species involved and their feeding intensities; temporal variability in food web structure with season and ontogeny; the effects on food web patterns of studying incomplete subsystems; and the variation in food web structure introduced by systematically changing the resolution of the data through aggregation and the incorporation of major to minor interactions. The following are some of the questions being asked. How representative of real systems ar ethe data upon which many food web generalizations are based? How dependent are food web properties on the temporal and taxonomic resolution of the data? When is a property such as food chain length truly limited by the environment or simply by the quality of the data?