Energetic constraints to food chain length in a metacommunity framework

摘要: As metabolism increases with body size, populations of large-sized species can become constrained to relatively low trophic positions within a local community due their high energetic demands combined the limited efficiency which energy is transferred up food chain from primary producers. In metacommunity context, dispersal major driver population dynamics and persistence, having also potential ameliorate aforementioned constraints its effect on colonization subsidies connected patches. Here, we derive size-dependent model for length in communities subjected migration show that higher influx migrants are able persist at positions. Simulations random, dendritic, real aquatic metacommunities corroborate this result further indicate location landscape (relative centrality or isolation) may determine web structure. More central pat...