2013/07/20 by Claire Jacquet, Charlotte Moritz, Jacquet, Claire +11 · 4 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Balance (ability) #Biology #Communication #Computer science #Ecological stability #Ecology #Ecosystem #Ecosystem dynamics and resilience #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #FOS: Biological sciences #Food web #Geography #Machine learning #Natural (archaeology) #Natural food #Populations and Evolution (q-bio.PE) #Psychology #Stability (learning theory) #Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis #Trophic level #q-bio.PE
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1307.5364
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University) · Main text: 9 pages, 4 figures. Supplementary Information: 14 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2013/07/20 · openalex publication_date 2013/07/20 · arxiv updated 2013/07/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We performed a stability analysis of 119 quantitative food webs which were compiled using a standard methodology to build Ecopath mass-balance models. Our analysis reveals that classic descriptors of complexity do not affect stability in natural food webs. Food web structure, which is non-random in real communities, reflects another form of complexity that we found influences dramatically the stability of real communities. We conclude that the occurrence of complex communities in nature is possible owing to their trophic structure.