A bioenergetic framework for aboveground terrestrial food webs

Bioenergetic approaches have been greatly influential for understanding com-munity functioning and stability and predicting effects of environmental changes on biodiversity. These approaches use allometric relationships to establish species' trophic interactions and consumption rates and have been successfully applied to aquatic ecosystems. Terrestrial ecosystems, where body mass is less predictive of plant-consumer interactions, present inherent challenges that these models have yet to meet. Here, we discuss the processes governing terres-trial plant-consumer interactions and develop a bioenergetic framework inte-grating those processes. Our framework integrates bioenergetics specific to terrestrial plants and their consumers within a food web approach while also considering mutualistic interactions. Such a framework is poised to advance our understanding of terrestrial food webs and to predict their responses to environmental changes.

Automated summary

Bioenergetic approaches have been influential in understanding community functioning and stability, particularly in aquatic ecosystems. However, these models face challenges in predicting plant-consumer interactions in terrestrial ecosystems where body mass is less predictive of these interactions.