Link flexibility: Evidence for environment-dependent adaptive foraging in a food web time-series

Henri, D. C.; van Veen, F. J. F.

Abstract

Temporal variability in the distribution of feeding links in a food web can be an important stabilising factor for these complex systems. Adaptive foraging and prey choice have been hypothesised to cause this link flexibility as organisms adjust their behaviour to variation in the prey community. Here, we analyse a 10-year time series of monthly aphid-parasitoid-secondary parasitoid networks and show that interaction strengths for polyphagous secondary parasitoids are generally biased towards the larger host species within their fundamental niche; however, in months of higher competition for hosts, size-based biases are reduced. The results corroborate a previous hypothesis stating that host-selectivity of parasitoids should be correlated to the relative likelihood of egg-limitation vs time-limitation. Our results evince adaptation of foraging behaviour to varying conditions affects the distribution of host-parasitoid link-strengths, where link-rewiring may be integral to stability in complex communities.

Citation

Henri, D. C., & van Veen, F. J. F. (2016). Link flexibility: Evidence for environment-dependent adaptive foraging in a food web time-series. Ecology, 97(6), 1381-1387. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0827.1

• Acceptance Date: Feb 15, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Mar 18, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Mar 2, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 18, 2016
• Journal: Ecology
• Electronic ISSN: 0012-9658
• Publisher: Ecological Society of America
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 97
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 1381-1387
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0827.1
• Keywords: Ecological networks, Adaptive behaviour, Interaction strength, Egg- limitation, Network structure, Condition-dependent foraging
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/412177
• Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/15-0827.1/abstract
• Additional Information: Author's accepted manuscript of article: Henri, D.C. and van Veen, F.J.F. (2016), Link flexibility: evidence for environment-dependent adaptive foraging in a food web time-series. Ecology. Accepted Author Manuscript. doi:10.1890/15-0827.1
• Contract Date: Mar 2, 2016