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Resource productivity and availability impacts for food‐chain length
Author(s) -
Doi Hideyuki
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ecological research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1440-1703
pISSN - 0912-3814
DOI - 10.1007/s11284-012-0941-9
Subject(s) - productivity , ecosystem , resource (disambiguation) , environmental science , resource productivity , natural resource economics , food chain , environmental resource management , environmental economics , ecology , computer science , economics , natural resource , biology , computer network , macroeconomics
Ecologists have focused on food‐chain length (FCL) for the past eight decades as an index of food‐web structure. Here, I review the hypotheses determining FCL with a focus on resource productivity and availability effects on FCL. First, I introduce the mainstream hypotheses to explain FCL variations: productivity, ecosystem size, and disturbance. For the existing productivity and productive space hypotheses, I stress the importance of using resource availability to estimate the productivity effect on FCL. Using a FCL dataset from 15 ponds, I tested the resource stoichiometry effect on FCL for ponds with between carbon:nitrogen ratio of primary producers and FCL. Moreover, I provide a perspective for studying resource availability and stoichiometry effects on FCL and of the alternative hypotheses of productive‐space and ecosystem size. Finally, I suggest the future directions of the FCL study: a resource subsidy and climate change effects on FCL and food‐web structure.