Learning objectives
To provide updates on the most recent advances in the field of food webs and ecosystem ecology. To learn methodological tools for investigating complex systems.
Course unit content
Part I: The Structure of food webs <br />
Predator-prey interaction and the structure of food webs. Constructing a food web: from field studies to community maps. Food webs as digraphs. Graphs and adjacency matrices. Food web statistics and structural patterns: web size, connectance, linkage density, feeding loops, omnivory. <br />
Part II: Relations between structure and function in food webs. <br />
Allometry in food webs and efficiency in the distribution of energy. Dominator trees and keystone species. Strongly connected components and their ecological significance. Indirect interactions and their ecological role: from cascading trophic interactions to functional patterns of interactions. <br />
Bibliography
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Cohen J.E., Briand F., Newmann CM. 1990. Community food webs: data and theory - Biomathmatics, vol. 20. Springer, Berlino. <br />
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Polis G.A., Winemiller K. 1996. Food Webs. Integration of patterns and Dynamics. Chapman & Hall, New York. <br />
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Allesina S., Bodini A., Bondavalli, C. 2006. Secondary extinctions in ecological networks: bottlenecks unveiled. ECOLOGICAL MODELLING. In print. <br />
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Allesina S., Bodini A. 2005. Food web networks: Scaling relation revisited. ECOLOGICAL COMPLEXITY, 2: 323-338. <br />
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Allesina S., Bodini A., Bondavalli C. 2005. Ecological subsystems via graph theory: the role of strongly connected components. OIKOS 110: 164-176. <br />
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Allesina S., Bodini A. 2004. Who dominates whom in the ecosystem? Energy flow bottlenecks and cascading extinctions. JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY, 230: 351- 358. <br />
Teaching methods
Lectures are based on Power point presentations. For the final assessment all students are requested to read and analyse the contents of a paper dealing with the topics of the course. <br />
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