了解决定在特定非生物和生物条件下生态相互作用的发生和强度的因素是至关重要的,因为生态群落稳定性和生态系统功能的许多方面取决于物种之间的相互作用模式。当前绘制食物网的方法主要基于特征,专业知识,实验,和/或统计推断。然而,它们没有提供明确的机制来解释营养相互作用如何受到生物体特征和物理环境方面的相互作用的影响,如温度,光强度或粘度。因此,他们还不能准确预测当地食物网将如何应对人为压力,尤其是气候变化和物种入侵。在这里,我们提出了一个综合食物网理论最新发展的框架,将身体大小和新陈代谢与生态系统的物理特性相结合。我们主张将运动范式与捕食序列的模块化定义相结合,因为运动是捕食者-猎物相互作用的核心,和一个通用的,需要模块化模型来描述捕食者-食饵相互作用中所有可能的变化。在有足够的经验和理论知识之前,我们的框架将有助于预测经过充分研究的物理因素对食物网的影响,如温度和氧气供应,以及不太常见的变量,如风,浊度或电导率。改进的预测能力将有助于更好地了解生态系统对不断变化的世界的反应。
Understanding the factors that determine the occurrence and strength of ecological interactions under specific abiotic and biotic conditions is fundamental since many aspects of ecological community stability and ecosystem functioning depend on patterns of interactions among species. Current approaches to mapping food webs are mostly based on traits, expert knowledge, experiments, and/or statistical inference. However, they do not offer clear mechanisms explaining how trophic interactions are affected by the interplay between organism characteristics and aspects of the physical environment, such as temperature, light intensity or viscosity. Hence, they cannot yet predict accurately how local food webs will respond to anthropogenic pressures, notably to climate change and species invasions. Herein, we propose a framework that synthesises recent developments in food-web theory, integrating body size and metabolism with the physical properties of ecosystems. We advocate for combination of the movement paradigm with a modular definition of the predation sequence, because movement is central to predator-prey interactions, and a generic, modular model is needed to describe all the possible variation in predator-prey interactions. Pending sufficient empirical and theoretical knowledge, our framework will help predict the food-web impacts of well-studied physical factors, such as temperature and oxygen availability, as well as less commonly considered variables such as wind, turbidity or electrical conductivity. An improved predictive capability will facilitate a better understanding of ecosystem responses to a changing world.