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Trophic coherence determines food-web stability
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Johnson, Samuel, Domínguez-García, Virginia, Donetti, Luca and Muñoz, Miguel A. (Miguel Angel Muñoz Martínez) (2014) Trophic coherence determines food-web stability. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 111 (50). pp. 17923-17928. doi:10.1073/pnas.1409077111
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1409077111
Abstract
Why are large, complex ecosystems stable? Both theory and simulations of current models predict the onset of instability with growing size and complexity, so for decades it has been conjectured that ecosystems must have some unidentified structural property exempting them from this outcome. We show that trophic coherence -- a hitherto ignored feature of food webs which current structural models fail to reproduce -- is a better statistical predictor of linear stability than size or complexity. Furthermore, we prove that a maximally coherent network with constant interaction strengths will always be linearly stable. We also propose a simple model which, by correctly capturing the trophic coherence of food webs, accurately reproduces their stability and other basic structural features. Most remarkably, our model shows that stability can increase with size and complexity. This suggests a key to May's Paradox, and a range of opportunities and concerns for biodiversity conservation.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QA Mathematics Q Science > QC Physics Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology |
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Centre for Complexity Science Faculty of Science > Mathematics |
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| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Biotic communities, Food chains (Ecology) | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America | ||||||
| Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0027-8424 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 16 December 2014 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 111 | ||||||
| Number: | 50 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 17923-17928 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1409077111 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Funder: | Spain. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN), Andalusia (Spain). Proyecto de Excelencia, Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, European Commission (EC) | ||||||
| Grant number: | FIS2009-08451 (MICINN), P09FQM-4682 (Andalusia), PIEF-GA-2010-276454 (EC) | ||||||
| Open Access Version: |
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