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Estimating trophic link density from quantitative but incomplete diet data.

A G Rossberg·K Yanagi·T Amemiya·K Itoh
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Abstract

The trophic link density and the stability of food webs are thought to be related, but the nature of this relation is controversial. This article introduces a method for estimating the link density from diet tables which do not cover the complete food web and do not resolve all diet items to species level. A simple formula for the error of this estimate is derived. Link density is determined as a function of a threshold diet fraction below which diet items are ignored ("diet partitioning function"). Furthermore, analytic relationships between this threshold-dependent link density and the generality distribution of food webs are established. A preliminary application of the method to field data suggests that empirical results relating link density to diversity might need to be revisited.

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AnimalsBiodiversityDietEntropyFood ChainModels, BiologicalSpecies SpecificityJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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A G Rossberg, K Yanagi, T Amemiya, K Itoh. 2006-06-29. Estimating trophic link density from quantitative but incomplete diet data.. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.06.019

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