The environment to the rescue: can physics help predict predator–prey interactions?
Journal
Biological Reviews
Journal Volume
2024
Journal Issue
Online Version of Record before inclusion in an issue
ISSN
1464-7931
1469-185X
Date Issued
2024-06-10
Author(s)
Mehdi Cherif
Ulrich Brose
Myriam R. Hirt
Remo Ryser
Violette Silve
Georg Albert
Russell Arnott
Emilio Berti
Alyssa Cirtwill
Alexander Dyer
Benoit Gauzens
Anhubav Gupta
Sébastien M. J. Portalier
Danielle Wain
Kate Wootton
Abstract
Understanding the factors that determine the occurrence and strength of ecological interactions under specific abiotic and biotic conditions is fundamental since many aspects of ecological community stability and ecosystem functioning depend on patterns of interactions among species. Current approaches to mapping food webs are mostly based on traits, expert knowledge, experiments, and/or statistical inference. However, they do not offer clear mechanisms explaining how trophic interactions are affected by the interplay between organism characteristics and aspects of the physical environment, such as temperature, light intensity or viscosity. Hence, they cannot yet predict accurately how local food webs will respond to anthropogenic pressures, notably to climate change and species invasions. Herein, we propose a framework that synthesises recent developments in food-web theory, integrating body size and metabolism with the physical properties of ecosystems. We advocate for combination of the movement paradigm with a modular definition of the predation sequence, because movement is central to predator–prey interactions, and a generic, modular model is needed to describe all the possible variation in predator–prey interactions. Pending sufficient empirical and theoretical knowledge, our framework will help predict the food-web impacts of well-studied physical factors, such as temperature and oxygen availability, as well as less commonly considered variables such as wind, turbidity or electrical conductivity. An improved predictive capability will facilitate a better understanding of ecosystem responses to a changing world.
Subjects
food webs
functional response
internal state
motion
movement paradigm
navigation
physical factors
predation sequence
predictability
Publisher
Wiley
Type
journal article