Natural and Null Food Webs: A Critical Investigation of Biological and Methodological Explanations for Food Web Structure

天然和无效食物网：对食物网结构的生物学和方法学解释的批判性研究

• 批准号: 9905446
• 负责人: Neo Martinez
• 金额: $ 3.5万
• 依托单位: San Francisco State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-05-01 至 2000-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9905446&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Natural; Null; Food; Webs; Critical

9905446MartinezFood-web theory is undergoing a paradigmatic shift from scale-invariant patterns in food webs to constant connectance and scale-dependent patterns. This postdoctoral starter grant will clarify the currently undetermined biological significance of the shift by rigorously and systematically comparing empirically observed food web patterns with patterns generated by null and mechanistic models. As a rich history in ecology has shown, such comparisons are critical to evaluating the claim that robust food web patterns are indicative of powerful biological processes that constrain the structure and function of ecological systems. Lacking the comparisons, the hypothesis that food web patterns are methodological artifacts needs to be systematically studied before much work on the biological basis for the patterns is warranted. The relatively small amount of previous work comparing natural and null food webs suggests that biological processes are responsible for the relatively low value of connectance in a wide range of terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecological systems. In an attempt to delineate the processes responsible for this and other food web patterns, candidate biological mechanisms will be formalized into computer models that construct food webs. Webs constructed in this manner will be compared against empirically observed food webs. This comparison will indicate whether the simulated mechanisms deserve further analytical and experimental investigation as potential sources of food web patterns.

9905446Martinez食物网理论正在经历一个范式的转变，从食物网中的尺度不变模式到恒定连接和尺度依赖模式。这个博士后启动资金将通过严格和系统地比较经验观察到的食物网模式与零和机械模型产生的模式，澄清目前尚未确定的生物学意义的转变。正如生态学的丰富历史所表明的那样，这种比较对于评估以下说法至关重要：强大的食物网模式表明了约束生态系统结构和功能的强大生物过程。缺乏比较，假设食物网模式是方法论的文物需要系统地研究之前，对模式的生物学基础的工作是有道理的。以前比较自然食物网和无食物网的工作相对较少，这表明生物过程是造成广泛的陆地、水生和海洋生态系统中连通性值相对较低的原因。在试图描绘负责这个和其他食物网模式的过程中，候选生物机制将被形式化为构建食物网的计算机模型。以这种方式构建的网将与经验观察到的食物网进行比较。这种比较将表明模拟机制是否值得进一步的分析和实验研究作为食物网模式的潜在来源。