@article{Stouffer2006,
title={A robust measure of food web intervality},
author={Stouffer DB, 
Camacho J, 
Amaral LAN},
abstract={Intervality of a food web is related to the number of trophic dimensions characterizing the niches in a community. We introduce here a mathematically robust measure for food web intervality. It has previously been noted that empirical food webs are not strictly interval; however, upon comparison to suitable null hypotheses, we conclude that empirical food webs actually do exhibit a strong bias toward contiguity of prey, that is, toward intervality. Further, our results strongly suggest that empirically observed species and their diets can be mapped onto a single dimension. This finding validates a critical assumption in the recently proposed static niche model and provides guidance for ongoing efforts to develop dynamic models of ecosystems.},
journal={Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A.},
volume={103},
doi={10.1073/pnas.0603844103},
year={2006},
month={DEC},
day={12},
pages={19015--19020},
}