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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 (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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“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
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
“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
“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
Owens, P. N. (2020) · Journal of Soils and Sediments · doi:10.1007/s11368-020-02815-9 · Cited by 240
“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
Löveï, G. L., & Ferrante, M. (2016) · Insect Science · doi:10.1111/1744-7917.12405 · Cited by 205
“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
“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 273
“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 195
“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. G., Legagneux, P., Massol, F., Archambault, P., & Gravel, D. (2016) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms12573 · Cited by 181
“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 229
“…(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. C., Garcia, B. J., Furches, A., Tuskan, G. A., & Jacobson, D. (2019) · Frontiers in Plant Science · doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.00862 · Cited by 213
“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 193
“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 219
Cawthorn, D., & Hoffman, L. C. (2015) · Food Research International · doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2015.03.025 · Cited by 206
“'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
Metadata
- 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
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Applied Mathematics › 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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