Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 15, Issue 4, Pages 291-300Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01732.x
Keywords
Ecological network; ecosystem engineering; facilitation; food web; interaction modification; non-trophic interactions; trophic interactions
Categories
Funding
- Alexander von Humboldt foundation
- Fondap Fondecyt [15001-001]
- Fondecyt [107335, 1100920, 7100021]
- Rhodes University
- Royal Society
- German Research Foundation (BR) [2315/13-1]
- NSF
- AW Mellon Foundation
- D & L Packard Foundation
- G & B Moore Foundation
- W & G Valley Foundation
- NSERC
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Div Of Biological Infrastructure [0850373] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Directorate For Geosciences [1115965] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Ocean Sciences [1115965] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Ocean Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1115838] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Organisms eating each other are only one of many types of well documented and important interactions among species. Other such types include habitat modification, predator interference and facilitation. However, ecological network research has been typically limited to either pure food webs or to networks of only a few (<3) interaction types. The great diversity of non-trophic interactions observed in nature has been poorly addressed by ecologists and largely excluded from network theory. Herein, we propose a conceptual framework that organises this diversity into three main functional classes defined by how they modify specific parameters in a dynamic food web model. This approach provides a path forward for incorporating non-trophic interactions in traditional food web models and offers a new perspective on tackling ecological complexity that should stimulate both theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding the patterns and dynamics of diverse species interactions in nature.
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