Modern models of trophic meta-communities

Abstract

Dispersal and foodweb dynamics have long been studied in separate models. However, over the past decades, it has become abundantly clear that there are intricate interactions between local dynamics and spatial patterns. Trophic meta-communities, i.e. meta-foodwebs, are very complex systems that exhibit complex and often counterintuitive dynamics. Over the past decade, a broad range of modelling approaches have been used to study these systems. In this paper, we review these approaches and the insights that they have revealed. We focus particularly on recent papers that study trophic interactions in spatially extensive settings and highlight the common themes that emerged in different models. There is overwhelming evidence that dispersal (and particularly intermediate levels of dispersal) benefits the maintenance of biodiversity in several different ways. Moreover, some insights have been gained into the effect of different habitat topologies, but these results also show that the exact relationships are much more complex than previously thought, highlighting the need for further research in this area. This article is part of the theme issue 'Integrative research perspectives on marine conservation'.

Keywords: dispersal; foodweb; meta-community.

Figure 1.

Illustration of a meta-foodweb from Brechtel et al. [15]. Distinct habitat patches harbour foodwebs, which interact by dispersal of individuals. (Online version in colour.)

Figure 2.

(a,b) Patch occupation probabilities for a specialist predator and its generalist competitor in a model with 10 000 patches. The generalist occupies regions where the patch density is too low for the specialist to persist. The x and y axes are normalized spatial coordinates. (from Barter & Gross [54]). (Online version in colour.)