食物链长度理论研究进展

食物链长度（Food chain length,FCL）是生态系统中最重要的特点之一,它通过改变生物间的营养关系,影响着生物多样性,群落的结构以及稳定性;它是反映食物网物质转换与能量传递的综合指数,食物链及其动态特征是生态学许多重要理论的基础,食物链长度理论的研究进展,推动了人们对水域生态系统中生物和非生物相互作用的理解。回顾了食物链长度的3种度量方法及其详细的计算方法,在此基础上简述了各方法的特点。综述了食物链长度的决定因素的4种假说（资源可利用性假说、生产力空间假说、生态系统大小假说、动态稳定性假说）及其交互作用,重点总结了湖泊食物链长度的空间格局与决定因素的研究进展。最后,食物链长度研究展望,包括食物链长度决定因子研究存在的问题及发展方向的总结,以及在在水域生态学中的应用的研究进展,例如食物链长度在指示污染物的生物富集中的研究进展、食物链食物链长度在指导生物操作、以及在食物链长度在对气候变化响应方面的研究进展等等。     

跨越生境的资源补贴对生态系统的影响研究进展

跨越不同生态系统之间的物质、能量和营养元素流动,即资源补贴,是生态系统的基本属性,也是生态学研究的基本问题之一.常见的资源补贴包括落入水体的树叶凋落物和陆地昆虫、水生昆虫成虫、从海洋生殖洄游的鲑鱼等,这些外源性的资源补贴对接收生态系统的生物个体、种群、群落、生物多样性和生态系统功能都有影响,包括促进个体生长、增加物种丰度和多样性、改变群落结构、增加生态系统的生产力、改变食物链长度及影响食物网、影响生态系统的稳定性等.随着未来人类活动对环境扰动的增加,尤其在土地利用、气候变化、生物入侵方面,对跨越生态系统资源补贴的时空动态影响将加剧,因而生态系统将面临更加严峻的威胁.鉴于此,未来在该领域的基础研究应着重开展以下几方面研究:单一和多重环境胁迫对资源补贴和生态系统的影响;动态资源补贴在生态系统修复及管理中的应用;关注与污染物相关的资源补贴的负面影响;加强跨越生境资源补贴在热带和亚热带以及在我国的生态学基础研究.     

高寒草甸生态系统食物链结构分析--来自稳定性碳同位素的证据

稳定性同位素技术应用于生态系统物质流动和食物链营养关系的研究方法 ,是基于生物体内天然存在的同位素比值与它们食物密切相关这一原理建立起来的。即将生物体内的稳定性同位素比值 (如δ1 3C)作为一自然标记 ,根据物种间该值的相对差异 ,追踪生态系统中的主要物质 (如碳源 )的来源和物质流动。于 2 0 0 2年 4～8月测定了高寒草甸生态系统主要生物群落中物种的稳定性碳同位素比值 (δ1 3C) ,依据得到的系统的富集因子( 1 0 5± 0 4 5 )‰ ,分析并确定了所测物种间的取食与被取食关系。结果发现 :高寒草甸生态系统由 5条主要的食物链构成 ,其中 1条为“植物→小型哺乳类→食肉兽 /猛禽”的三节点食物链 ,2条为“植物→牲畜和植物→植食性鸟类”的二节点食物链 ,2条分别为“植物→昆虫→雀形目鸟类→猛禽 /食肉兽”和“植物→昆虫→两栖类→猛禽 /食肉兽”的四节点食物链 ;系统食物链的最大长度为 3 5 3 ,与系统的最大节点数相近。表明稳定性碳同位素可以作为分析高寒草甸生态系统食物网和食物链结构以及食物链长度的有效代理 (proxy)。     

干旱半干旱草地生态系统与土壤水分关系研究进展

研究干旱半干旱草地生态系统与土壤水分关系和相互作用机理对于揭示草地生态系统稳定性及其水土关键要素的变化过程具有重要意义。从不同界面、不同尺度综述了草地生态系统对土壤水分的影响及草地生态系统的响应与适应机制,总结了草地生态系统与土壤水分关系模型研究的相关进展,并分析了气候变化对草地生态系统和土壤水分关系的影响。草地生态系统通过影响水文过程和生态过程来影响土壤水分,土壤水分在植物生长发育、形态、生理生态过程、种间关系、群落组成和结构以及草地生态系统功能等方面对草地生态系统产生影响;充分揭示草地生态系统-土壤水分相互作用机理是模型研究的关键;气候变化对草地生态系统植物与土壤水分关系具有重要影响。今后应加强以下研究:1)开展草地不同优势种和植物功能型与土壤水分关系的研究,找出能反映植物对土壤水分响应的性状指标,阈值响应点及适应机制;2)注重对不同时间和空间尺度上的转换和比较;3)加强个体、群体和生态系统尺度草地植物生长模型的研究及其与土壤-植被-大气水分传输模型的耦合;4)加强草地生态系统与土壤水分关系对气候变化响应的研究。     

溪流生态系统生态学研究

本文根据6年定位研究的结果,讨论了有关东北山溪生态系统生态学方面的问题,诸如溪流生态系统的组成、结构、能量流动、物质循环、食物网结构与营养能级等。调查了组成生物并对其做了定量分析;描述了能量的消耗途径并绘制了生态系统的能流框图;按营养关系划分了食物链和食物网结构,并根据各类群的生物量计算了不同营养能级的转换效率;按照水体中溶氧变化和水分循环规律建立了相应的动态模型。最后,对经典的将生态系统中生物类群划分为生产者、消费者和分解者三大集团进行了讨论,鉴于事实上每一生物类群分别具有生产、消费和分解等三重作用,因此,建议用生产过程、消费过程和分解过程来表述生物类群在生态系统中的功能作用。       

微尺度下城市公园人造绿地土壤水分的时空分异格局及其驱动机制

水是生态系统的基本非生物组成要素,土壤水分对生态系统结构和功能有重要影响。微地形改造被证明能有效涵养水源、防止水土流失,并被广泛应用在生态恢复工程中。然而,在微尺度下人造生态系统土壤水分的时空分异格局及其驱动机制仍不明确。选择北京奥林匹克森林公园一处集合了4种不同地形的草地作为研究对象,对表层(0—10 cm)和深层(10—25 cm)土壤水分开展了长期的研究工作。研究结果表明,不同地形上土壤水分的季节变化特征没有显著差异,土壤温度是影响土壤水分季节变化的主要因素。在植被覆盖均匀的条件下,微地形对土壤表层水分的空间分布格局有显著影响,除洼地和冲沟两种特殊地形外,坡度决定的生态水文过程是主要的驱动机制;土壤深层水分没有明显的空间分布格局。研究结果说明在微尺度下,微地形通过影响土壤水分的空间分布格局,可能会对生态系统结构和功能产生潜在影响,应当在景观改造和生态恢复相关研究和工程应用中给予更多的关注。     

季节性雪被变化对森林凋落物分解及土壤氮动态的影响

全球气候变化引发的雪被格局变化将深刻影响植被的凋落物分解、陆地生态系统的土壤养分循环等过程.森林是陆地生态系统的主体,在全球生物地球化学循环中起着不可替代的作用.本研究综述了季节性雪被变化对森林凋落物分解及土壤氮动态的影响.全球气候变化情景下季节性雪被表现出因地域而异的增加或减少的变化格局,一方面通过改变环境温湿度、凋落物质量、分解者动态等直接影响分解过程,另一方面通过改变森林群落结构、植被物候、土壤养分等间接地作用于凋落物分解.同时,季节性雪被通过影响氮富集作用、雪被下土壤温湿度、冻融循环、森林群落、雪下动物和微生物等相关因子而改变森林土壤氮循环.本领域未来应开展的研究是: 1) 全面考虑全球气候变化情景下季节性雪被格局的变异性,开展不同季节性雪被格局变化的模拟研究;2) 开展季节性雪被融雪水淋溶作用对森林凋落物分解和土壤氮动态的影响研究;3) 阐明不同生态系统和气候带中季节性雪被格局变化对森林凋落物分解过程和土壤氮动态的驱动机制研究;4) 量化季节性雪被变化对森林凋落物分解和土壤氮动态在雪被覆盖期的瞬时影响和无雪期的延续影响,为阐明和模型预测陆地生态系统生物地球化学循环对全球气候变化的响应提供理论基础和数据支持.     

刈割、施肥对高寒草甸物种多样性与生态系统功能关系的影响及群落稳定性机制

植物群落中不同“功能身份”物种的多样性与特定生态系统功能之间具有何种关系及其作用机制尚不明确。通过在高寒矮嵩草(Kobresia humilis)草甸为期5年的刈割(不刈割、留茬3 cm、留茬1 cm)、施肥(施肥、不施肥)和浇水(浇水、不浇水)控制实验, 研究了刈割与土壤资源获得性梯度上不同“功能身份”物种(群落中所有物种、响应物种、作用物种和共有物种)的多样性变化与群落地上净初级生产力和稳定性的关系以及稳定性机制。研究结果显示: 群落中响应物种、作用物种和共有物种数分别占全部物种数的36.6%、18.3%和64.8%, 物种多样性对生态系统功能具有不同的效应, 净初级生产力主要受响应物种和作用物种的多样性变化影响, 而稳定性则主要由共有物种的多样性变化决定; 群落稳定性的维持主要依赖于共有物种的多样性增加, 其作用机制是投资组合效应, 而超产效应和异步性效应对稳定性并无作用; 刈割和施肥对物种多样性、稳定性和净初级生产力具有相反的影响, 前者能增加物种多样性和稳定性, 并降低净初级生产力, 而后者的作用正相反。这与群落中全部物种的多样性变化受刈割影响较大, 而作用物种的多样性变化受资源获得性影响较大有关。上述结果表明高寒草甸生态系统地上净初级生产力主要由少数影响生产力的作用物种的多样性决定, 而稳定性则由大量共有物种的多样性所掌控。投资组合效应是物种多样性导致稳定性的机制。由于群落中不同物种的多样性效应具有分异性, 对于特定的生态系统功能而言, 物种的“功能身份”可能比物种多样性本身更重要, 不加区别地笼统定义物种多样性与生态系统功能的关系可能欠妥。     

生态系统中的菌流

本文对生态系统中的能量液、物质流和信息流作了扼要的评述,提出了“菌流”新概念。菌流是指正常微生物群组分通过食物链或其它媒介在生态系统中不同营养级生物体内或体表持续稳定的流过程。生态系统中的菌流具备以下特征：１．流转的基本单位为活体群,其数量在特定的营养级都存在动态变化阈值;２．流转的基本单位对各营养级生物体存在正向压力;３．流转的途径为食物链或其它媒介,并且食物链对菌群有衰减与放大作用。菌流不仅是     

山地河流壶穴生态系统研究进展

壶穴是河流生态系统中的特殊生境之一,具有结构简单、边界明确、食物链简短、生境易控制等特点,常被作为生态学理论、进化理论和生物气候学等相关研究的模式系统.本文概述了山地河流壶穴的生境特点(水文、理化性质)、生物群落(生物多样性、环境因子)、食物链(竞争、捕食、寄生等)等,分析了壶穴生态系统与河流生态系统在水文特征、生物群落和食物链等方面的差异,指出了我国对壶穴的水文特征、理化性质、食物链以及环境因子对壶穴内生物多样性和功能群影响的研究尚存在不足或空白,最后提出了壶穴生态系统未来研究的方向和建议.     

Proximate structural mechanisms for variation in food-chain length

Food-chain length is a central characteristic of ecological communities because of its strong influence on community structure and ecosystem function. While recent studies have started to better clarify the relationship between food-chain length and environmental gradients such as resource availability and ecosystem size, much less progress has been made in isolating the ultimate and proximate mechanisms that determine food-chain length. Progress has been slow, in part, because research has paid little attention to the proximate changes in food web structure that must link variation in food-chain length to the ultimate dynamic mechanism. Here we outline the structural mechanisms that determine variation in food-chain length. We explore the implications of these mechanisms for understanding how changes in food-web structure influence food-chain length using both an intraguild predation community model and data from natural ecosystems. The resulting framework provides the mechanisms for linking ultimate dynamic mechanisms to variation in food-chain length. It also suggests that simple linear food-chain models may make misleading predictions about patterns of variation in food-chain length because they are unable to incorporate important structural mechanisms that alter food-web dynamics and cause non-linear shifts in food-web structure. Intraguild predation models provide a more appropriate theoretical framework for understanding food-chain length in most natural ecosystems because they accommodate all of the proximate structural mechanisms identified here.     

Flow regulation increases food‐chain length through omnivory mechanisms in a Mediterranean river network

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Effects of productivity, disturbance, and ecosystem size on food-chain length: insights from a metacommunity model of intraguild predation

Traditionally, productivity and disturbance have been hypothesized as important determinants of food-chain length. More recently, growing empirical evidence suggests a strong role of ecosystem size. To theoretically explore the effects of basal productivity, disturbance, and ecosystem size on food-chain length, we develop and analyze a metacommunity model of intraguild predation (IGP). The model finds that, when local IGP is weak, increasing basal productivity, weakening disturbance, and increasing ecosystem size will generally increase food-chain length. When local IGP is strong, by contrast, increasing basal productivity or weakening disturbance favors intraguild predators and hinders the coexistence of intraguild predators and intraguild prey, limiting food-chain length. In contrast, increasing ecosystem size can promote coexistence even when local IGP is strong, increasing food-chain length through inserting intraguild prey and changing the degree of omnivory by intraguild predators. Intraguild prey needs to be the superior colonizer to intraguild predators for this to occur. We discuss that these theoretical predictions appear consistent with empirical patterns.     

Food chain length and omnivory determine the stability of a marine subtidal food web

1. Using a subtidal marine food web as a model system, we examined how food chain length (predators present or absent) and the prevalence of omnivory influenced temporal stability (and its components) of herbivores and plants. We held the density of top predators constant but manipulated their identity to generate a gradient in omnivory prevalence. 2. We measured temporal stability as the inverse of the coefficient of variation of abundance over time. Predators and omnivory could influence temporal stability through effects on abundance (the 'abundance' effect), summed variance across taxa (the 'portfolio effect') or summed covariances among taxa (the 'covariance effect'). 3. We found that increasing food chain length by predator addition destabilized aggregate herbivore abundance through their cascading effects on abundances. Thus, predators destabilized herbivores through the overyielding effect. We also found that the stability of herbivore abundance and microalgae declined with increasing prevalence of omnivory among top predators. Aggregate macroalgae was not affected, but the stability of one algal taxon increased with the prevalence of omnivory. 4. Our results suggest that herbivores are more sensitive than plants to changes in food web structure because of predator additions by invasion or deletions such as might occur via harvesting and habitat loss.     

Hydrogeomorphology and river impoundment affect food-chain length of diverse Neotropical food webs

Food-chain length is a central characteristic of ecological communities that affects community structure and ecosystem function. What determines the length of food chains is not well resolved for most ecosystems. Herein, we examine environmental correlates of food-chain length based on the productivity hypothesis, compare food-chain lengths among aquatic ecosystem types and identify bi-directional effects of river impoundment on food-chain length in the Paraná River Basin of South America. Both temperature regime, a surrogate of productivity, and ecosystem type significantly affected food-chain length in independent analyses. However, when analyzed together, only ecosystem type explained significant variation in food-chain length. Food chains were longest in reservoirs, and shortest in high-gradient rivers. The proximate mechanism driving this pattern appears to be body-size ratios of primary consumers to apex predators, which differ among trophic pathways. Food chains based on phytoplankton production may have an additional size-structured link not present in food chains based on other basal sources such as detritus and algae. Hydrogeomorphology is the ultimate mechanism influencing food-chain length because it affects the relative importance of basal carbon sources supporting higher trophic levels, which through differences in the number of trophic links along the different size-structured pathways, appears to drive the observed patterns in food-chain length. We discuss a hypothesis of food-chain length that integrates energy flow and size-structure, facilitates inclusion of temporal dynamics and which is readily testable in both 'closed' and 'open' ecosystems.     

Productivity,Disturbance and Ecosystem Size Have No Influence on Food Chain Length in Seasonally Connected Rivers

The food web is one of the oldest and most central organising concepts in ecology and for decades, food chain length has been hypothesised to be controlled by productivity, disturbance, and/or ecosystem size; each of which may be mediated by the functional trophic role of the top predator. We characterised aquatic food webs using carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from 66 river and floodplain sites across the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia to determine the relative importance of productivity (indicated by nutrient concentrations), disturbance (indicated by hydrological isolation) and ecosystem size, and how they may be affected by food web architecture. We show that variation in food chain length was unrelated to these classic environmental determinants, and unrelated to the trophic role of the top predator. This finding is a striking exception to the literature and is the first published example of food chain length being unaffected by any of these determinants. We suggest the distinctive seasonal hydrology of northern Australia allows the movement of fish predators, linking isolated food webs and potentially creating a regional food web that overrides local effects of productivity, disturbance and ecosystem size. This finding supports ecological theory suggesting that mobile consumers promote more stable food webs. It also illustrates how food webs, and energy transfer, may function in the absence of the human modifications to landscape hydrological connectivity that are ubiquitous in more populated regions.     

Food Webs in Relation to Variation in the Environment and Species Assemblage: A Multivariate Approach

The abiotic environment has strong influences on the growth, survival, behavior, and ecology of aquatic organisms. Biotic interactions and species life histories interact with abiotic factors to structure the food web. One measure of food-web structure is food-chain length. Several hypotheses predict a linear relationship between one environmental variable (e.g., disturbance or ecosystem size) and food-chain length. However, many abiotic and biotic variables interact in diverse ways to structure a community, and may affect other measures of food web structure besides food-chain length. This study took a multivariate approach to test the influence of several important environmental variables on four food-web characteristics measured in nine ponds along a hydroperiod gradient over two years. This approach allowed for testing the ecosystem size and dynamic constraints hypotheses while in context of other possibly interacting environmental variables. The relationship between amphibian and invertebrate communities and pond habitat variables was assessed to understand the underlying food-web structure. Hydroperiod and pond area had a strong influence on amphibian and invertebrate communities, trophic diversity and δ¹⁵N range. The range in δ¹³C values responded strongly to dissolved oxygen. Food-chain length responded to multiple environmental variables. Invertebrate and amphibian communities were structured by pond hydroperiod which in turn influenced the trophic diversity of the food web. The results of this study suggest food-chain length is influenced by environmental variation and species assemblage and that a multivariate approach may allow us to better understand the dynamics within and across aquatic food webs.     

Prey preference of top predators manipulates the functioning and stability of multi-trophic ecosystems

The relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, and the mechanisms underpinning the food web stability, have been intensively investigated in ecological research. The ubiquities of generalists in natural food webs and its important role in dictating these ecosystem properties have been generally recognized. However, how competition between multiple top predators shape these ecosystem properties and determine the success of invasive predators remain largely unexplored. Here, we use a well-developed food web model to investigate the effects of prey preference of top predators on ecosystem functioning and food web stability in both local and invasive conditions. We design several modeling scenarios to mimic combinations of different types of top predators (specialist/generalist) and their origins (local/invasive). Our model theoretically shows that lower exploitation competition for prey between top predators (with distinct prey preferences featured by higher attack rates) would be beneficial for the ecosystem functioning and food web stability. We also demonstrate that the success of top predator invasion depends on the prey preference of both local and invasive top predators. Sensitivity analysis on the model further supports our findings. Our results highlight the importance of prey preference of multiple top predators in manipulating the properties of multi-trophic ecosystems. Our findings may have important implications because the current ongoing global changes profoundly change the phenology of many biological systems and create trophic mismatch, which may manipulate prey preference of top predators and in turn deteriorate ecosystem functioning and food web stability.     

Flood disturbance affects macroinvertebrate food chain length in an alluvial river floodplain

1. Characterising food-web responses to environmental factors could greatly improve our understanding of environment-biota relationships, and especially in floodplains where trophic interactions can be particularly important during phases of hydrological disconnection. The effects of floodplain hydrology and environmental attributes on structural aspects of biotic assemblages have been extensively studied, but responses at the functional level remain largely unknown.
2. Here, we characterised a central aspect of food-web architecture, the food chain length, as the maximum trophic position within 24 macroinvertebrate communities of parafluvial habitats in the Maggia river floodplain, in Switzerland. We investigated how the food chain length changed with different levels of habitat size, primary productivity and disturbance, the three factors potentially affecting food chain length in both theoretical and empirical studies.
3. We found that food chain length was lower in frequently flooded habitats and immediately after a flood. We also showed that trophic omnivory, where predators fed at lower trophic levels after flooding, and in more frequently flooded habitats, may explain these changes.
4. These findings show that trophic omnivory may explain how predators resist disturbance and are maintained in highly dynamic landscapes. More importantly, given that trophic omnivory may overall weaken trophic linkages and thus increase food-web stability, this suggests that it could be a key mechanism in sustaining biodiversity in river floodplains.