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Top‐predator abundance and chaos in tritrophic food chains
Author(s) -
Rinaldi S.,
De Feo O.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1461-0248.1999.21035.x
Subject(s) - abundance (ecology) , ecosystem , edge of chaos , ecology , predator , food chain , biology , limiting , predation , mathematics , mechanical engineering , algorithm , engineering
Nonlinear models and laboratory experiments suggest that populations can be chaotic, whereas field data show that a fair proportion of observed populations are not too far from being chaotic. Thus, a natural question arises: do ecosystems enjoy special properties at the edge of chaos? By limiting the analysis to three classes of tritrophic food chains and to the role played by the nutrient available to the bottom of the ecosystem, we show that top‐predator mean abundance is maximum at the edge of chaos. The geographical variability of species abundance along nutrient gradients and the dynamic complexity of observed natural populations are consistent with our findings. Effective guidelines for the sustainability of exploited ecosystems are also derived.