Intraspecific variability drives diversity in food webs

  • Melian C
  • Vilas C
  • Baldo F
  • et al.
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Abstract

Biodiversity theories neglect individual-level variability in ecological interactions even though empirical work has revealed considerable genetic and phenotypic variation among individuals in natural populations. This impedes assessing the impact of individual-level variability on biodiversity in multi-trophic ecosystems. Here we use a density-dependent and individual-based food web model, tested against the largest individual-based food web to date, to show that non-random intraspecific variation in prey selection alters species diversity in food webs. Predators consuming many prey increase diversity by preferentially selecting common prey; predators consuming few prey inhibit diversity by preferentially selecting rare prey, putting them at risk of extinction. Thus species-level patterns cannot be explained by species-level averages, but instead must consider individual-level variation in prey selection. Individual-level variation occurs in many biological and social contexts, suggesting that analyses of individual-level interaction data will be relevant in a wide range of fields.

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Melian, C., Vilas, C., Baldo, F., Gonzalez-Ortegon, E., Drake, P., & Williams, R. (2011). Intraspecific variability drives diversity in food webs. Nature Precedings. https://doi.org/10.1038/npre.2011.6251.1

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