Food network unfolding: An extension of trophic dynamics for application to natural ecosystems (original) (raw)

1989, Journal of Theoretical Biology

For food networks of arbitrary structure, we generalize and develop a trophic-path partitioning of standing stocks and flows, where each trophic path represents a particular chain of trophic transfers that an energy portion has experienced in the past. Based on this, we derive a method for "'unfolding" any given food network along the "trophic level axis" by partitioning all network components, standing stocks and flows, according to the past history of energy in the network. We show a balance relation between total inflow and outflow at each trophic-level component of each compartment (trophic species or guild), which is necessary to justify the trophic-level partitioning of throughflows. By collapsing the unfolded network to a macroscopic chain of trophic levels, each composed of portions of different compartments, conventional concepts of trophic level, energy pyramid, and progressive efficiency previously applied Only to food chains, are generalized to structurally complex food transfer networks.

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