Small world patterns in food webs

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that certain complex food webs exhibit Small World network properties, including high clustering and short path lengths, which may contribute to ecological stability and self-organization.

Contribution

It provides the first evidence that food webs display Small World patterns, linking network topology to ecological stability and self-organization.

Findings

Food webs show high clustering and short path lengths.

Connection distributions follow a fat-tail power law.

Implications for ecological stability and self-organization.

Abstract

The analysis of some species-rich, well-defined food webs shows that they display the so called Small World behavior shared by a number of disparate complex systems. The three systems analysed (Ythan estuary web, Silwood web and the Little Rock lake web) have different levels of taxonomic resolution, but all of them involve high clustering and short path lengths between species. Additionally, the distribution of connections with fat-tail power law behavior. These features suggest that communities might be self-organized in such a way that high homeostasis to perturbations (with short transient times to recovery) would be at work. The consequences for ecological theory are outlined.