Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Volume 270, Issue 1522, Pages 1413-1417Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2003.2392
Keywords
food web; predator-prey interactions; food chain length
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Maximum food-chain length has been correlated with resource availability, ecosystem size, environmental stability and colonization history. Some of these correlations may result from environmental effects on predator-prey body size ratios. We investigate relationships between maximum food-chain length, predator-prey mass ratios, primary production and environmental stability in marine food webs with a natural history of community assembly. Our analyses provide empirical evidence that smaller mean predator-prey body size ratios are characteristic of more stable environments and that food chains are longer when mean predator-prey body size ratios are small. We conclude that environmental effects on predator-prey body size ratios contribute to observed differences in maximum food-chain length.
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