The effects of stochastic population dynamics on food web structure

Authored by Craig R Powell, Richard P Boland

Date Published: 2009

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.11.006

Sponsors: United Kingdom Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

Platforms: No platforms listed

Model Documentation: Other Narrative Mathematical description

Model Code URLs: Model code not found

Abstract

We develop a stochastic, individual-based model for food web simulation which in the large-population limit reduces to the well-studied Webworld model, which has been used to successfully construct model food webs with several realistic features. We demonstrate that an almost exact match is found between the population dynamics in fixed food webs, and that the demographic fluctuations have systematic effects when the new model is used to construct food webs due to the presence of species with small populations. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Tags

Model Extinction risk Functional-response Long-term evolution