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The Effects of Spatial Scale on Trophic Interactions

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Abstract

Food chain models have dominated empirical studies of trophic interactions in the past decades, and have lead to important insights into the factors that control ecological communities. Despite the importance of food chain models in instigating ecological investigations, many empirical studies still show a strong deviation from the dynamics that food chain models predict. We present a theoretical framework that explains some of the discrepancies by showing that trophic interactions are likely to be strongly influenced by the spatial configuration of consumers and their resources. Differences in the spatial scale at which consumers and their resources function lead to uncoupling of the population dynamics of the interacting species, and may explain overexploitation and depletion of resource populations. We discuss how changed land use, likely the most prominent future stress on natural systems, may affect food web dynamics by interfering with the scale of interaction between consumers and their resource.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Martijn Bezemer, Jeff Harvey, Wim van der Putten, Peter de Ruiter, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive comments and suggestions. This paper results from a exploratory ESF workshop on “Trophic Interactions in a Changing World”, at Texel, The Netherlands (2002). The research of M.R. is supported by a grant from the Research Council Earth and Life Sciences of the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO-ALW). This is contribution 3334 of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology, P.O. Box 140, Yerseke, AC, 4400, The Netherlands

    Johan Van de Koppel

  2. Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom

    Richard D. Bardgett

  3. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Research, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O.Box 7072, Uppsala, 750 07, Sweden

    Janne Bengtsson

  4. Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiología, CSIC, P.O. Box 257, Salamanca, 37071, Spain

    Claudino Rodriguez-Barrueco

  5. Copernicus Institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Environmental Sciences, University Utrecht, P.O. Box 80115, Utrecht, TC, 3508, The Netherlands

    Max Rietkerk & Martin J. Wassen

  6. Department of Animal Ecology, Justus Liebig-University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26–32, Giessen, 35392, Germany

    Volkmar Wolters

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  1. Johan Van de Koppel
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  2. Richard D. Bardgett
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  3. Janne Bengtsson
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  4. Claudino Rodriguez-Barrueco
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  5. Max Rietkerk
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  6. Martin J. Wassen
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  7. Volkmar Wolters
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Correspondence to Johan Van de Koppel.

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Van de Koppel, J., Bardgett, R.D., Bengtsson, J. et al. The Effects of Spatial Scale on Trophic Interactions. Ecosystems 8, 801–807 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-005-0134-2

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