Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:38:43.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Body size and predatory interactions in freshwaters: scaling from individuals to communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2009

By
Guy Woodward  and
Philip Warren
Edited by
Alan G. Hildrew ,
David G. Raffaelli  and
Ronni Edmonds-Brown
Guy Woodward
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
Philip Warren
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Alan G. Hildrew
Affiliation:
Queen Mary University of London
David G. Raffaelli
Affiliation:
University of York
Ronni Edmonds-Brown
Affiliation:
University of Hertfordshire
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Body size is an attribute of individual organisms. It affects, or at least is correlated with, a considerable array of physical, physiological and behavioural characteristics that determine where individuals occur and what they do (Elton, 1927; Peters, 1983; Brown et al., 2004; Woodward, Speirs & Hildrew, 2005c). Such ubiquity makes body size an obvious candidate source of general rules that can be derived from selective processes acting on individuals, but which can also be applied at higher levels of ecological organization (Cousins, 1980; Peters, 1983; Dickie, Kerr & Boudreau, 1987; Yodzis & Innes, 1992; Cohen et al., 1993; Gaston & Blackburn, 2000; Cohen, Jonsson & Carpenter, 2003; Emmerson & Raffaelli, 2004). Although body size was identified as a key link between natural history aspects of population dynamics and community structure many decades ago (e.g. Hardy, 1924; Elton, 1927; Hutchinson, 1959), these early ideas have languished somewhat until relatively recently. In the last two to three decades a plethora of allometric body-size scaling relationships have been described and used to derive mechanisms to explain, or parameters to model, general patterns in natural systems (e.g. Peters, 1983). Recently, it has been suggested that basal metabolic rate is the fundamental constraint that underpins many of the size-related patterns and processes observed in natural systems, and that a metabolic theory of ecology could, eventually, attain similar importance to that of the genetic theory of evolutionary biology (Brown et al., 2004; Brown, Allen & Gillooly, this volume).

Type
Chapter
Information
Body Size: The Structure and Function of Aquatic Ecosystems , pp. 98 - 117
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achord, S., Levin, P. S. & Zabel, R. W. (2003). Density-dependent mortality in Pacific salmon: the ghost of impacts past? Ecology Letters, 6, 335–342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aljetlawi, A. A., Sparrevick, E. & Leonardsson, K. (2004). Prey-predator size-dependent functional response: derivation and rescaling to the real world. Journal of Animal Ecology, 73, 239–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beare, D., Batten, S. D., Edwards, M.et al. (2003). Summarising spatial and temporal information in CPR data. Progress in Oceanography, 58, 217–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bechara, J. A., Moreau, G. & Hare, L. (1993). The impact of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) on an experimental stream benthic community: the role of spatial and size refugia. Journal of Animal Ecology, 62, 451–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blumenshine, S. C., Lodge, D. M. & Hodgson, J. R. (2000). Gradient of fish predation alters body size distributions of lake benthos. Ecology, 81, 374–386.Google Scholar
Breck, J. R. & Gitter, M. J. (1983). Effect of fish size on the reactive distance of bluegill (Lepomis machrochirus). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 40, 162–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett, J. R. & Glass, N. R. (1973). Metabolic rates and critical swimming speed of sockeye salmon Oncorynchus nerka in relation to size and temperature. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 30, 379–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, J. L. (1968). The effects of prey size selection by lake planktivores. Systematic Zoology, 17, 273–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, J. L. & Dodson, S. I. (1965). Predation, body size, and composition of plankton. Science, 150, 28–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brose, U., Berlow, E. L., Jonsson, T.et al. (2005). Body sizes of consumers and their resources. Ecology, 86, 2545–2546.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, J. H. (1995). Macroecology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Brown, J. H. & Gillooly, J. J. (2003). Ecological food webs: high-quality data facilitate theoretical unification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 100, 1467–1468.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, J. H., Gillooly, J. F., Allen, A. P., Savage, V. M. & West, G. B. (2004). Toward a metabolic theory of ecology. Ecology, 85, 1771–1789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byström, P. (2006). Recruitment pulses induce cannibalistic giants in Arctic Char. Journal of Animal Ecology, 75, 434–444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cattin, M.-F., Bersier, L.-F., Banasek-Richter, C., Baltensberger, R. & Gabriel, J.-P. (2004). Phylogenetic constraints and adaptation explain food-web structure. Nature, 427, 835–839.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chase, J. M. (1999). Food web effects of prey size refugia: variable interactions and alternative stable equilibria. American Naturalist, 154, 559–570.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Claessen, D., Roos, A. M. & Persson, L. (2000). Dwarfs and giants: cannibalism and competition in size-structured populations. American Naturalist, 155, 219–237.Google ScholarPubMed
Cohen, J. E., Briand, F. & Newman, C. M. (1986). A stochastic theory of community food webs. III. Predicted and observed lengths of food chains. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 228, 317–353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. E., Pimm, S. L., Yodzis, P. & Saldana, J. (1993). Body sizes of animal predators and animal prey in food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology, 62, 67–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. E., Jonsson, T. & Carpenter, S. R. (2003). Ecological community description using the food web, species abundance, and body size. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 100, 1781–1786.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Courchamp, F., Langlais, M. & Sugihara, G. (1999). Cats protecting birds: modelling the mesopredator release effect. Journal of Animal Ecology, 68, 292–293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cousins, S. H. (1980). A trophic continuum derived from plant structure, animal size and a detritus cascade. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 82, 607–618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cousins, S. H. (1985). The trophic continuum in marine ecosystems: structure and equations for a predictive model. Canadian Bulletin of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 213, 76–93.Google Scholar
Roos, A. M. & Persson, L. (2002). Size-dependent life-history traits promote catastrophic collapses of top predators. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 99, 12907–12912.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruiter, P. C., Neutel, A. M. & Moore, J. C. (1995). Energetics, patterns of interaction strengths, and stability in real ecosystems. Science, 269, 1257–1260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dickie, L. M., Kerr, S. R. & Boudreau, P. R. (1987). Size-dependent processes underlying regularities in ecosystem structure. Ecological Monographs, 57, 233–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eggleston, D. B. (1990). Functional response of blue crabs Callinectes sapidus Rathburn feeding on juvenile oysters Crassostrea virginica (Gmelin): effects of predator sex and size, and prey size. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 143, 73–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elton, C. S. (1927). Animal Ecology. London: Sidgwick & Jackson.Google Scholar
Emmerson, M. C. & Raffaelli, D. G. (2004). Body size, patterns of interaction strength and the stability of a real food web. Journal of Animal Ecology, 73, 399–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fry, F. E. & Cox, E. T. (1970). A relation of size to swimming speed in rainbow trout. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 27, 976–978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaston, K. J. & Blackburn, T. M. (2000). Pattern and Process in Macroecology. Oxford: Blackwell Science.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giller, P. S., Hillebrand, H., Berninger, U.-G.et al. (2004). Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning: emerging issues and their experimental test in aquatic environments. Oikos, 104, 423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, A. (1924). The herring in relation to its animate environment, part 1. Fisheries Investigations, Series 27 (3).
Hewett, S. W. (1980). The effect of prey size on the functional and numerical responses of a protozoan predator to its prey. Ecology, 61, 1075–1081.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutchinson, G. E. (1959). Homage to Santa Rosalia or why are there so many kinds of animals? American Naturalist, 93, 145–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huxham, M., Beaney, S. & Raffaelli, D. (1996). Do parasites reduce the chances of triangulation in a real food web? Oikos, 76, 284–300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, S. R. (1974). Theory of size distribution in ecological communities. Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, 31, 1859–1862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kislalioglu, M. & Gibson, R. N. (1976). Prey ‘handling time’ and its importance in food selection by the 15-spined stickleback, Spinachia spinachia (L). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 25, 151–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ledger, M. E. & Hildrew, A. G. (2005). The ecology of acidification and recovery: changes in herbivore-algal food web linkages across a stream pH gradient. Environmental Pollution, 137, 103–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lehman, C. L. & Tilman, D. (2000). Biodiversity, stability, and productivity in competitive communities. American Naturalist, 156, 534–552.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lundberg, S. & Persson, L. (1993). Optimal body size and resource density. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 164, 163–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Memmott, J., Martinez, N. D. & Cohen, J. E. (2000). Predators, parasitoids and pathogens: species richness, trophic generality and body size in a natural food web. Journal of Animal Ecology, 69, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pastorok, R. A. (1981). Prey vulnerability and size selection by Chaoborus larvae. Ecology, 62, 1311–1324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Persson, L., Leonardsson, K., Roos, A. M., Gyllenberg, M. & Christensen, B. (1998). Ontogenetic scaling of foraging rates and the dynamics of a size-structured consumer-resource model. Theoretical Population Biology, 54, 270–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petchey, O. L., Downing, A. L., Mittelbach, G. G.et al. (2004). Species loss and the structure and functioning of multitrophic aquatic systems. Oikos, 104, 467–478.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, R. H. (1983). The Ecological Implications of Body Size. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitta, P., Giannakourou, A. & Christaki, U. (2001). Planktonic ciliates in the oligotrophic Mediterranean Sea: longitudinal trends of standing stocks, distributions and analysis of food vacuole contents. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, 24, 297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Policansky, D. & Magnuson, J. J. (1998). Genetics, metapopulations and ecosystem management of fisheries. Ecological Applications, 8, 119–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polis, G. A. (1991). Complex trophic interactions in deserts: an empirical critique of food web theory. American Naturalist, 138, 123–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyke, G. H. (1984). Optimal foraging theory: a critical review. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 15, 523–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyke, G. H., Pulliam, H. R. & Charnov, E. L. (1977). Optimal foraging: a selective review of theory and tests. Quarterly Review of Biology, 52, 137–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reuman, D. & Cohen, J. E. (2005). Estimating relative energy fluxes using the food web, species abundance, and body size. Advances in Ecological Research, 36, 136.Google Scholar
Ricklefs, R. E. (2004). A comprehensive framework for global patterns in biodiversity. Ecology Letters, 7, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheffer, M. & Carpenter, S. R. (2003). Catastophic regime shifts in ecosystems: linking theory to observation. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 18, 648–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoener, T. W. (1969). Models of optimal size for solitary predators. American Naturalist, 103, 277–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schoener, T. W. (1971). Theory of feeding strategies. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 11, 369–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid, P. E., Tokeshi, M. & Schmid-Araya, J. M. (2000). Relation between population density and body-size in stream communities. Science, 289, 1557–1560.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schmid-Araya, J. M., Hildrew, A. G., Robertson, A., Schmid, P. E. & Winterbottom, J. (2002a). The importance of meiofauna in food webs: evidence from an acid stream. Ecology, 83, 1271–1285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid-Araya, J. M., Schmid, P. E., Robertson, A.et al. (2002b). Connectance in stream food webs. Journal of Animal Ecology, 71, 1056–1062.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, M. A. & Murdoch, W. W. (1983). Selective predation by the backswimmer, Notonecta. Limnology and Oceanography, 28, 352–366.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smyly, W. J. P. (1980). Food and feeding of aquatic larvae of the midge Chaoborus flavicans (Meigen) (Diptera: Chaoboridae) in the laboratory. Hydrobiologia, 70, 179–188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Solan, M., Cardinale, B. J., Downing, A. L.et al. (2004). Extinction and ecosystem function in the marine benthos. Science, 306, 1177–1180.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spitze, K. (1985). Functional response of an ambush predator: Chaoborus americanus predation on Daphnia pulex. Ecology, 66, 938–949.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stead, T. K., Schmid-Araya, J. M., Schmid, P. E. & Hildrew, A. G. (2005). The distribution of body size in a stream community: one system, many patterns. Journal of Animal Ecology, 74, 475–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, D. W. & Krebs, J. R. (1986). Foraging theory. Monographs in Behaviour and Ecology. Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. J. (1975). Towards a predator-prey model incorporating age structure: the effects of predator and prey size on the predation of Daphnia magna by Ischnura elegans. Journal of Animal Ecology, 44, 907–916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tripet, F. & Perrin, N. (1994). Size-dependent predation by Dugesia lugubris (Turbellaria) on Physa acuta (Gastropoda): experiments and model. Functional Ecology, 8, 458–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turesson, H., Persson, A. & Brönmark, C. (2002). Prey size selection in piscivorous pikeperch (Stizostedion lucioperca) includes active prey choice. Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 11, 223–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, P. H. (1989). Spatial and temporal variation in the structure of a freshwater food web. Oikos, 55, 299–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, P. H. (1996). Structural constraints on food web assembly. In Hochberg, M. E., Clobert, J. and Barbault, R. (eds.) Aspects of the Genesis and Maintenance of Biological Diversity, ed. M. E. Hochberg, J. Clobert and R. Barbault. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, pp. 143–161.Google Scholar
Warren, P. H. (2005). Wearing Elton's wellingtons: why body size still matters in food webs. In Dynamic Food Webs: Multispecies Assemblages, Ecosystem Development, and Environmental Change, ed. Ruiter, P. C., Wolters, V. and Moore, J. C.. San Diego: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warwick, R. M. & Clarke, K. R. (1991). A comparison of some methods for analysing changes in benthic community structure. Journal of the Marine Biological Association, UK, 71, 225–244.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, R. J. & Martinez, N. D. (2000). Simple rules yield complex food webs. Nature, 404, 180–183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woodward, G. & Hildrew, A. G. (2001). Invasion of a stream food web by a new top predator. Journal of Animal Ecology, 70, 273–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, G. & Hildrew, A. G. (2002a). Food web structure in riverine landscapes. Freshwater Biology, 47, 777–798.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, G. & Hildrew, A. G. (2002b). Body-size determinants of niche overlap and intraguild predation within a complex food web. Journal of Animal Ecology, 71, 1063–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, G. & Hildrew, A. G. (2002c). Differential vulnerability of prey to an invading top predator: integrating field surveys and laboratory experiments. Ecological Entomology, 27, 732–744.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, G., Thompson, R., Townsend, C. R. & Hildrew, A. G. (2005a). Pattern and process in food webs: evidence from running waters. In Aquatic Food Webs: An Ecosystem Approach, ed. Belgrano, A., Scharler, U., Dunne, J. and Ulanowicz, B.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, G., Ebenman, B., Emmerson, M.et al. (2005b). Body size in ecological networks. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20, 402–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodward, G., Speirs, D. C. & Hildrew, A. G. (2005c). Quantification and resolution of a complex, size-structured food web. Advances In Ecological Research, 36, 85–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yodzis, P. & Innes, S. (1992). Body size and consumer-resource dynamics. American Naturalist, 139, 1151–1175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×