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- Eklöf, Anna, et al.
(författare)
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The phylogenetic component of food web structure and intervality
- 2016
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Ingår i: Theoretical Ecology. - : Springer Publishing Company. - 1874-1738 .- 1874-1746. ; 9:1, s. 107-115
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Despite the exceptional complexity formed byspecies and their interactions in ecological networks, such asfood webs, regularities in the network structures are repeat-edly demonstrated. The interactions are determined by thecharacteristics of a species. The characteristics are in turndetermined by the species’ phylogenetic relationships, butalso by factors not related to evolutionary history. Here, wetest whether species’ phylogenetic relationships provides asignificant proxy for food web intervality. We thereafterquantify the degree to which different species traits remainvaluable predictors of food web structure after the base-line effect of species’ relatedness has been removed. Wefind that the phylogenetic relationships provide a significantbackground from which to estimate food web intervalityand thereby structure. However, we also find that thereis an important, non-negligible part of some traits, e.g.,body size, in food webs that is not accounted for by thephylogenetic relationships. Additionally, both these rela-tionships differ depending if a predator or a prey perspectiveis adopted. Clearly, species’ evolutionary history as well astraits not determined by phylogenetic relationships shapes predator-prey interactions in food webs, and the underly-ing evolutionary processes take place on slightly differenttime scales depending on the direction of predator-preyadaptations.
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