Biology 3445F Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Food Web, Energy Flux, Food Energy
Document Summary
Connectance & link density: 2 hypotheses - chain length, 4 hypotheses - small world path lengths. Food webs describe feeding relationships b/n species in a community. Building a food web is difficult since determining parameters are hard (parameterizing) Food webs imply transfer of food energy. Primary producers, then primary consumers, then secondary consumers, then tertiary. Primary producers fix energy in form of carbon; carbon sent back into atmosphere when dead organisms decompose. Connectedness web shows feeding relationships among organisms. Energy flow web shows connections quantified as energy flux. More energy incorporated into first trophic level compared to secondary producers. Functional web emphasizes influence of populations on growth rates in other populations. Igp species of same trophic level feeding on each other. Connectance amount of actual links established divided by total # of potential links that would be possible. Every species in community has possibility of interacting w all species in community including itself.