Food web similarity increases with productivity similarity at a continental scale

Primary productivity and trophic interactions are fundamentally linked. However, it remains largely unknown how food web structure varies along primary productivity gradients at continental scales or how the influence of primary productivity on food webs varies within regions. Furthermore, anthropogenic pressure threatens the integrity of food webs globally with potentially predictable food web disassembly. Here, we test how plant productivity and anthropogenic fragmentation predict the pairwise similarity of food web networks within and among regions for 127 protected areas spanning deserts to rainforests. We measured food web structural equivalence independent of species identities and accounted for the inherent scaling of food web structure with richness and connectance. Food webs were significantly more similar at sites with similar plant productivity at the continental scale and within woodland savannas, and in tropical rainforests with similar anthropogenic fragmentation. These em..., , # Food web similarity increases with productivity similarity at a continental scale

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.zkh1893nh](10.5061/dryad.zkh1893nh)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes the data and code required to replicate analyses in this manuscript, examining the environmental drivers of food web structure across 127 protected areas in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data includes meta-web predator-prey interaction data for non-volant mammal species larger than 500g in accordance with Jonathan Kingdon's Mammals of Africa volumes and with published global predator-prey interaction data (Fricke *et al.* 2022). Coordinates correspond to protected-area centroids and do not represent precise species occurrence locations.

We also grouped these 127 sites into Bioregions in accordance with One Earth Bioregions ([https://www.oneearth.org/bioregions](https://www.oneearth.org/bioregions)). We used the realm and sub-realm designations to group sites with similar habitats ..., ,