Effects of spatial scale of sampling on food web structure

This study asks whether the spatial scale of sampling alters structural properties of food webs and whether any differences are attributable to changes in species richness and connectance with scale. Understanding how different aspects of sampling effort affect ecological network structure is important for both fundamental ecological knowledge and the application of network analysis in conservation and management. Using a highly resolved food web for the marine intertidal ecosystem of the Sanak Archipelago in the Eastern Aleutian Islands, Alaska, we assess how commonly studied properties of network structure differ for 281 versions of the food web sampled at five levels of spatial scale representing six orders of magnitude in area spread across the archipelago. Species (S) and link (L) richness both increased by approximately one order of magnitude across the five spatial scales. Links per species (L/S) more than doubled, while connectance (C) decreased by approximately two-thirds. Four...本研究旨在探究采样空间尺度是否会改变食物网的结构属性，以及此类差异是否可归因于物种丰富度与连接度随尺度变化的情况。明确采样努力对生态网络结构的多维度影响，无论对于基础生态学认知，还是网络分析在保护与管理中的应用均具有重要意义。本研究以阿拉斯加州东阿留申群岛（Eastern Aleutian Islands）萨纳克群岛（Sanak Archipelago）潮间带海洋生态系统的高分辨率食物网为研究对象，针对覆盖该群岛面积跨度达六个数量级的五级空间尺度，生成281份经采样得到的食物网版本，以此评估网络结构的常见研究属性如何随尺度发生变化。随五级空间尺度梯度，物种丰富度（S）与连接丰富度（L）均提升约一个数量级；每物种连接数（L/S）提升逾一倍，而连接度（C）则下降约三分之二。四项……