Inferring predator-prey interactions in food webs

1. Food webs are a powerful way to represent the diversity, structure, and function of ecological systems. However, the accurate description of food webs requires significant effort in time and resources, limiting their widespread use in ecological studies. Newly published methods allow for the inference of feeding interactions using proxy variables. Here, we compare the accuracy of two recently described methods, as well as describe a composite model of the two, for the inference of feeding interactions using a large, well-described dataset.
2. Both niche and neutral processes are involved in determining whether or not two species will form a feeding link in communities. Three different models for determining niche constraints of feeding interactions are compared, and all three models are extended by incorporating neutral processes, based on relative abundances. The three models compared here infer niche processes through 1) phylogenetic relationships, 2) local species trait distribut...

1. 食物网（Food webs）是表征生态系统多样性、结构与功能的有力工具。然而，精准刻画食物网需要投入大量时间与资源，这限制了其在生态学研究中的广泛应用。新近发表的方法可借助代理变量（proxy variables）推断物种间的取食相互作用。本研究依托一套规模庞大且刻画详尽的数据集，对两种新近提出的取食相互作用推断方法的准确性进行对比，同时构建二者的复合模型并展开分析。
2. 生态群落中，物种间能否形成取食关联，同时受生态位（niche）过程与中性（neutral）过程共同调控。本研究对比了三种用于确定取食相互作用生态位约束的模型，并基于物种相对丰度，通过引入中性过程对这三种模型进行扩展。本次对比的三种模型分别通过1）系统发育关系（phylogenetic relationships）、2）局域物种性状分布……