Addressing the Eltonian shortfall with trait‐based interaction models. (15th January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Caron, Dominique; Maiorano, Luigi; Thuiller, Wilfried; Pollock, Laura J.
• Editors: Chase, Jonathan
• Is Part Of: Ecology letters. Volume 25:Number 4(2022)
• Page Start: 889
• Page End: 899
• Publication Date: 2022-01-15
• Subjects: ecological networks -- ecological predictions -- food web -- model transferability -- terrestrial vertebrates -- trait matching -- trophic interactions; Ecology -- Periodicals; 577
• DOI: 10.1111/ele.13966
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1461-023X

Abstract

Abstract: We have very limited knowledge of how species interact in most communities and ecosystems despite trophic relationships being fundamental for linking biodiversity to ecosystem functioning. A promising approach to fill this gap is to predict interactions based on functional traits, but many questions remain about how well we can predict interactions for different taxa, ecosystems and amounts of input data. Here, we built a new traits‐based model of trophic interactions for European vertebrates and found that even models calibrated with 0.1% of the interactions (100 out of 71 k) estimated the full European vertebrate food web reasonably well. However, predators were easier to predict than prey, especially for some clades (e.g. fowl and storks) and local food web connectance was consistently overestimated. Our results demonstrate the ability to rapidly generate food webs when empirical data are lacking—an important step towards a more complete and spatially explicit description of food webs. Abstract : While species interactions are fundamental for linking biodiversity to ecosystem functioning, large‐scale empirical data are lacking for most species and ecosystems. We built a new traits‐based model of trophic interactions for European vertebrates and found that even models calibrated very few interactions estimated the full European vertebrate food web reasonably well. Our results demonstrate the ability to rapidly generate food webs when empirical data are lacking, an important step towards a more complete and spatially explicit description of food webs.