Compartments in a marine food web associated with phylogeny, body mass, and habitat structure.
Open accessAbstract
A long‐standing question in community ecology is whether food webs are organized in compartments, where species within the same compartment interact frequently among themselves, but show fewer interactions with species from other compartments. Finding evidence for this community organization is important since compartmentalization may strongly affect food web robustness to perturbation. However, few studies have found unequivocal evidence of compartments, and none has quantified the suite of mechanisms generating such a structure. Here, we combine computational tools from the physics of complex networks with phylogenetic statistical methods to show that a large marine food web is organized in compartments, and that body size, phylogeny, and spatial structure are jointly associated with such a compartmentalized structure. Sharks account for the majority of predatory interactions within their compartments. Phylogenetically closely related shark species tend to occupy different compartments and have divergent trophic levels, suggesting that competition may play an important role structuring some of these compartments. Current overfishing of sharks has the potential to change the structural properties, which might eventually affect the stability of the food web.
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“One recent study shows that niche structure can result in compartmentalization [9], but the relationship between compartments and spatial habitat structure remains the strongest empirical pattern identified [10,11].”
BackgroundA Food Web Model of the Serengeti: Stability, Dynamics and Indirect Effects
Clarke, D., Hopcraft, J. G. C., & Haydon, D. T. (2026) · African Journal of Ecology · doi:10.1111/aje.70115
- Authors
- Rezende, E. L., Albert, E. M., Fortuna, M. A., & Bascompte, J.
- Affiliations
- Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Rezende, Enrico L.
- Venue
- Ecology Letters
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-07-02
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 779-788
- ISSN
- 1461-023X (ISSN-L)
- 1461-0248
- OpenAlex
- W2107375837
- Cited by
- 258
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 15 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 15
- FWCI
- 12.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hdl.handle.net
- Licence
- Locations
- Ecology Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ichthyology and Marine Biology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Marine and fisheries research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Keywords
- marine food webs, phylogeny, body mass, habitat structure, sharks, trophic levels, competition (biology), food web robustness, overfishing, complex networks, community organizations
- MeSH terms
- Analysis of Variance, Animals, Marine Biology, Models, Biological, Phylogeny, Sharks, Species Specificity, Caribbean Region, Ecosystem, Food Chain, Body Size
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