Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity
Abstract
It is suggested that local animal species diversity is related to the number of predators in the system and their efficiency in preventing single species from monopolizing some important, limiting, requisite. In the marine rocky intertidal this requisite usually is space. Where predators capable of preventing monopolies are missing, or are experimentally removed, the systems become less diverse. On a local scale, no relationship between latitude (10⚬ to 49⚬ N.) and diversity was found. On a geographic scale, an increased stability of annual production may lead to an increased capacity for systems to support higher-level carnivores. Hence tropical, or other, ecosystems are more diverse, and are characterized by disproportionately more carnivores.
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Predators are known to have profound effects on the structure of marine communities, and have been shown capable of enhancing species diversity and altering community structure.
“Predators are known to have profound effects on the structure of marine communities, and have been shown capable of enhancing species diversity (keystone species) and altering community structure (trophic cascades) (Paine 1966, Estes et al. 1998, Rilov 2009).”
From Diet of invasive lionfish on hard bottom reefs of the Southeast USA: insights from stomach contents and stable isotopes (2011) · cites this paper as Paine 1966
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BackgroundInterpreting variation to advance predictive restoration science
Brudvig, L. A., Barak, R. S., Bauer, J. T., Caughlin, T. T., Laughlin, D. C., Larios, L., Matthews, J. W., Stuble, K. L., Turley, N. E., & Zirbel, C. R. (2017) · Journal of Applied Ecology · doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12938 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
“Together, these processes fall within the purview of numerous ecological theories including community assembly, plant-soil feedbacks, succession and trophic dynamics (e.g. Paine 1966; Connell & Slayter 1977; Chase 2003; Fattorini & Halle 2004; Van der Putten et al. 2013),”
BackgroundPersistence in fluctuating environments
Schreiber, S., Benaïm, M., & Atchadé, K. A. S. (2010) · Journal of Mathematical Biology · doi:10.1007/s00285-010-0349-5 · Cited by 194 · see citing works
Plankton distribution and ocean dispersal
McManus, M., & Woodson, C. (2012) · Journal of Experimental Biology · doi:10.1242/jeb.059014 · Cited by 190
“Many intertidal and benthic marine species have a planktonic larval phase, and populations in the intertidal zone are heavily influenced by the supply of these larvae (Paine, 1966; Dayton, 1971; Caley et al., 1996; Connolly and Roughgarden, 1998).”
BackgroundRecent Trends in Local-Scale Marine Biodiversity Reflect Community Structure and Human Impacts
Elahi, R., O’Connor, M. I., Byrnes, J. E. K., Dunic, J., Eriksson, B. K., Hensel, M. J. S., & Kearns, P. J. (2015) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2015.05.030 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Phytoplankton defence mechanisms: traits and trade‐offs
Pančić, M., & Kiørboe, T. (2018) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · doi:10.1111/brv.12395 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
“Paine, R. T. (1966). Food web complexity and species diversity.”
BackgroundKeystone species: toward an operational concept for marine biodiversity conservation
Valls, A., Marta Coll, M., & Villy Christensen, A. (2015) · Ecological Monographs · doi:10.1890/14-0306.1 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
“A keystone species was first described as a predator maintaining high species diversity and complex interspecific feeding relationships in the community (Paine 1966).”
BackgroundMethodTrophic coherence determines food-web stability
Johnson, S., Domínguez‐García, V., Donetti, L., & Muñoz, M. A. (2014) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1409077111 · Cited by 166 · see citing works
Owens, P. N. (2020) · Journal of Soils and Sediments · doi:10.1007/s11368-020-02815-9 · Cited by 222 · see citing works
“2016) and the composition, structure, and function of ecosystems (Paine 1966; Hilderbrand et al. 2004), for example as a food source for bears, eagles, orcas, and humans.”
BackgroundLife in fluctuating environments
Bernhardt, J. R., O’Connor, M. I., Sunday, J. M., & Gonzalez, A. (2020) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2019.0454 · Cited by 188 · see citing works
Lövei, G., & Ferrante, M. (2017) · Insect Science · doi:10.1111/1744-7917.12405 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
“Predation is one of the important ecological interactions, and has substantial effects on the structure and stability of ecosystems (MacArthur, 1955; Hairston et al., 1960; Paine, 1966).”
BackgroundCorrelation and persistence of hunting and logging impacts on tropical rainforest mammals
Brodie, J., Giordano, A., Zipkin, E. F., Bernard, H., Mohd-Azlan, J., & Ambu, L. (2015) · Conservation Biology · doi:10.1111/cobi.12389 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
“For example, predation on herbivore species in proportion to their relative abundance can restrict competitive Conservation Biology Volume 29, No. 1, 2015 exclusion by any herbivore (Paine 1966), a pattern known as predator-mediated coexistence.”
BackgroundLiu, X., Li, D., Ma, M., Szymanski, B. K., Stanley, E., & Gao, J. (2022) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2022.04.002 · Cited by 261 · see citing works
“achieved experimentally by species removal or addition [72, 89].”
BackgroundLaforest‐Lapointe, I., & Arrieta, M. (2017) · Frontiers in Immunology · doi:10.3389/fimmu.2017.00788 · Cited by 185 · see citing works
“In community ecology, the concept of a keystone species or group of species is described as an actor of a community that is so important to its organization and diversity that losing it provokes a massive cascade of extinctions and loss of ecosystem function (23, 24, 127).”
BackgroundNo complexity–stability relationship in empirical ecosystems
Jacquet, C., Moritz, C., Morissette, L., Legagneux, P., Massol, F., Archambault, P., & Gravel, D. (2016) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms12573 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
“Further analyses revealed that this result was robust to the variability of sampling intensity among the 116 food webs and to uncertainty related to Ecopath parameter estimates (Methods section, Supplementary Figs 1,2 and 3).”
Impacts of artificial light at night in marine ecosystems—A review
Marangoni, L. F. D. B., Davies, T. W., Smyth, T., Rodríguez, A., Hamann, M., Duarte, C., Pendoley, K. L., Berge, J., Maggi, E., & Levy, O. (2022) · Global Change Biology · doi:10.1111/gcb.16264 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
“…(Bolton et al., 2017; Maggi, Bongiorni, et al., 2020; Underwood et al., 2017) that are known to drive top down structuring of marine ecosystems (Paine, 1966); migrations and orientation of marine organisms— critical for their survival (Navarro-Barranco & Hughes, 2015; Torres et al., 2020); and…”
Plant Host-Associated Mechanisms for Microbial Selection
Jones, P., Garcia, B. J., Furches, A., Tuskan, G., & Jacobson, D. A. (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00862 · Cited by 173 · see citing works
“The concept of keystone species was developed by ecologist Robert T. Paine (Paine, 1966, 1969) and has since been applied to many different fields and with varied meanings.”
BackgroundAntarctic Marine Biodiversity: Adaptations, Environments and Responses to Change
Peck, L. S. (2018) · CRC Press eBooks · doi:10.1201/9780429454455-3 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
“There are some examples covering smaller geographic scales that appear to show levels of predation pressure are higher at lower latitudes (Paine 1966, MacArthur 1972).”
BackgroundThe meaning of functional trait composition of food webs for ecosystem functioning
Gravel, D., Albouy, C. P., & Thuiller, W. (2016) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2015.0268 · Cited by 206 · see citing works
Cawthorn, D., & Hoffman, L. C. (2015) · Food Research International · doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2015.03.025 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
“'Keystone species' or 'ecosystem engineers' are those species that have a disproportionately large effect on the environment relative to their abundance (Mills, Soulé, & Doak, 1993; Paine, 1966 Paine, , 1969 ).”
BackgroundSuski, C. D., & Cooke, S. J. (2007) · Biodiversity and Conservation · doi:10.1007/s10531-006-9060-7 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
- Authors
- Paine, R. T.
- Corresponding author
- Paine, Robert T.
- ORCID
- Paine, Robert T.
- Venue
- The American Naturalist
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1966-01
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 910
- Pages
- 65-75
- ISSN
- 0003-0147 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5323
- OpenAlex
- W2054637019
- Cited by
- 5,361
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 84 · 2025: 127 · 2024: 139 · 2023: 140 · 2022: 145 · 2021: 155 · 2020: 198 · 2019: 178 · 2018: 171 · 2017: 166 · 2016: 176 · 2015: 150 · 2014: 135 · 2013: 143 · 2012: 133
- FWCI
- 26.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The American Naturalist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Oceanography › Marine Biology and Ecology Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models
- Keywords
- food web complexity, species diversity, predator-prey interactions, interspecific competition, rocky intertidal communities, predator removal, carnivore abundance, tropical ecosystems
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