Food-web flexibility effects on network stability and ecosystem processes

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The structure of natural communities can be described by complex networks with nodes representing populations and links (edges) characterizing feeding interactions that direct energy and biomass flows. Traditionally, the link structure of these networks and the population traits such as their body masses have been viewed as static properties that determine species’ population dynamics. More recent modelling approaches allow link adaptation according to adaptive foraging algorithms and variance in population traits in size-structured population models. Under these approaches, the characteristics of the nodes and links are flexible, and the network structure is a consequence of dynamics (and not merely the cause). This project is aiming to develop a mechanistic understanding of how flexibility in the link structures (adaptive foraging) and the node traits (size-structured populations) affect the stability of complex food webs and ecosystem processes. Ecosystem processes (e.g., primary production) will be monitored to analyze if adaptive forces at the population level optimize processes at the network level. As other biological networks are also flexible, this project may fertilize other disciplines of complex network science.