Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.

A rich body of empirically grounded theory has developed about food webs--the networks of feeding relationships among species within habitats. However, detailed food-web data and analyses are lacking for ancient ecosystems, largely because of the low resolution of taxa coupled with uncertain and inc...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Jennifer A Dunne, Richard J Williams, Neo D Martinez, Rachel A Wood, Douglas H Erwin
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2008
Materias:	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/00f7e532562144eba7689b450365ad37
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:00f7e532562144eba7689b450365ad37
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:00f7e532562144eba7689b450365ad372021-11-25T05:33:23ZCompilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.1544-91731545-788510.1371/journal.pbio.0060102https://doaj.org/article/00f7e532562144eba7689b450365ad372008-04-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/18447582/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1544-9173https://doaj.org/toc/1545-7885A rich body of empirically grounded theory has developed about food webs--the networks of feeding relationships among species within habitats. However, detailed food-web data and analyses are lacking for ancient ecosystems, largely because of the low resolution of taxa coupled with uncertain and incomplete information about feeding interactions. These impediments appear insurmountable for most fossil assemblages; however, a few assemblages with excellent soft-body preservation across trophic levels are candidates for food-web data compilation and topological analysis. Here we present plausible, detailed food webs for the Chengjiang and Burgess Shale assemblages from the Cambrian Period. Analyses of degree distributions and other structural network properties, including sensitivity analyses of the effects of uncertainty associated with Cambrian diet designations, suggest that these early Paleozoic communities share remarkably similar topology with modern food webs. Observed regularities reflect a systematic dependence of structure on the numbers of taxa and links in a web. Most aspects of Cambrian food-web structure are well-characterized by a simple "niche model," which was developed for modern food webs and takes into account this scale dependence. However, a few aspects of topology differ between the ancient and recent webs: longer path lengths between species and more species in feeding loops in the earlier Chengjiang web, and higher variability in the number of links per species for both Cambrian webs. Our results are relatively insensitive to the exclusion of low-certainty or random links. The many similarities between Cambrian and recent food webs point toward surprisingly strong and enduring constraints on the organization of complex feeding interactions among metazoan species. The few differences could reflect a transition to more strongly integrated and constrained trophic organization within ecosystems following the rapid diversification of species, body plans, and trophic roles during the Cambrian radiation. More research is needed to explore the generality of food-web structure through deep time and across habitats, especially to investigate potential mechanisms that could give rise to similar structure, as well as any differences.Jennifer A DunneRichard J WilliamsNeo D MartinezRachel A WoodDouglas H ErwinPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleBiology (General)QH301-705.5ENPLoS Biology, Vol 6, Iss 4, p e102 (2008)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Jennifer A Dunne Richard J Williams Neo D Martinez Rachel A Wood Douglas H Erwin Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
description	A rich body of empirically grounded theory has developed about food webs--the networks of feeding relationships among species within habitats. However, detailed food-web data and analyses are lacking for ancient ecosystems, largely because of the low resolution of taxa coupled with uncertain and incomplete information about feeding interactions. These impediments appear insurmountable for most fossil assemblages; however, a few assemblages with excellent soft-body preservation across trophic levels are candidates for food-web data compilation and topological analysis. Here we present plausible, detailed food webs for the Chengjiang and Burgess Shale assemblages from the Cambrian Period. Analyses of degree distributions and other structural network properties, including sensitivity analyses of the effects of uncertainty associated with Cambrian diet designations, suggest that these early Paleozoic communities share remarkably similar topology with modern food webs. Observed regularities reflect a systematic dependence of structure on the numbers of taxa and links in a web. Most aspects of Cambrian food-web structure are well-characterized by a simple "niche model," which was developed for modern food webs and takes into account this scale dependence. However, a few aspects of topology differ between the ancient and recent webs: longer path lengths between species and more species in feeding loops in the earlier Chengjiang web, and higher variability in the number of links per species for both Cambrian webs. Our results are relatively insensitive to the exclusion of low-certainty or random links. The many similarities between Cambrian and recent food webs point toward surprisingly strong and enduring constraints on the organization of complex feeding interactions among metazoan species. The few differences could reflect a transition to more strongly integrated and constrained trophic organization within ecosystems following the rapid diversification of species, body plans, and trophic roles during the Cambrian radiation. More research is needed to explore the generality of food-web structure through deep time and across habitats, especially to investigate potential mechanisms that could give rise to similar structure, as well as any differences.
format	article
author	Jennifer A Dunne Richard J Williams Neo D Martinez Rachel A Wood Douglas H Erwin
author_facet	Jennifer A Dunne Richard J Williams Neo D Martinez Rachel A Wood Douglas H Erwin
author_sort	Jennifer A Dunne
title	Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
title_short	Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
title_full	Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
title_fullStr	Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
title_full_unstemmed	Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
title_sort	compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2008
url	https://doaj.org/article/00f7e532562144eba7689b450365ad37
work_keys_str_mv	AT jenniferadunne compilationandnetworkanalysesofcambrianfoodwebs AT richardjwilliams compilationandnetworkanalysesofcambrianfoodwebs AT neodmartinez compilationandnetworkanalysesofcambrianfoodwebs AT rachelawood compilationandnetworkanalysesofcambrianfoodwebs AT douglasherwin compilationandnetworkanalysesofcambrianfoodwebs
_version_	1718414617093341184

Compilation and network analyses of cambrian food webs.

Ejemplares similares