The persistence of species in an ecosystem is strongly influenced by the food web — the network of predator-prey interactions between species. Amaral lab alumnus Daniel Stouffer and his post-doctoral advisor Jordi Bascompte demonstrate that specific interaction patterns confer persistence upon the community whereas others have the opposite effect. Moreover, they find that these effects depend critically on whether they are examined at the level of three species or at that of an entire food web.
Alumnus' research featured in Ecology Letters.
posted Jan. 31, 2010