The dynamic nature of cereal food webs challenges the suitability of snapshot sampling for assessing ecosystem services.

ABSTRACT: Current theory of food web dynamics is based on mid- to long-term data. However, the short-term dynamics are still poorly understood, as the technology to study them is not readily available. We addressed this gap, by sampling invertebrate food webs bi-weekly, with generalist and specialist predators, herbivores and detritivores as prey, in barley fields over two years. We measured weighted connectance, community composition and link rewiring dissimilarity, as well as species-level specialisation of predators. We expected the connectance to be lowest, and both dissimilarities to be highest during the mid-season, whereas specialisation was predicted to follow prey abundance. We found differing trends across years, with connectance declining over time, and community and rewiring dissimilarit

SUBMITTER: Leote PNB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12644813 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature