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Food webs are one of the most useful, and challenging, objects of study in ecology. These networks of predator-prey interactions, conjured in Darwin's image of a "tangled bank," provide a paradigmatic example of complex adaptive systems. This book is based on a February 2004 Santa Fe Institute workshop. Its authors treat the ecology of predator-prey interactions, food web theory, structure and dynamics. The book explores the boundaries of what is known of the relationship between structure and dynamics in ecological networks and will define directions for future developments in this field.

Food chains (Ecology)

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Lipids in Aquatic Ecosystems provides a comprehensive summary of the most recent literature on the role of lipids in aquatic systems from many world experts. Essential fatty acids (EFAs), or omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids as they are known in the popular press, have garnered considerable attention in the technical and popular literature during the last decade. Lipids are important energy storage molecules in most organisms. However, equally or even more important, specific lipids (e.g. EFAs) play critical roles in a wide range of physiological processes such as regulating the structural properties of cell membranes and serving as precursors to eicosanoid signaling molecules (i.e. prostaglandins, prostacyclins, the thromboxanes and the leukotrienes). It is well established the EFAs have important impacts on human health, and it is widely agreed that the classic "Western diet" is particularly imbalanced vis-à-vis foods containing omega-3 versus omega-6 fatty acids. But beyond the specialist literature, it is not widely known that the most physiologically important long chain, polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, i.e. eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are produced de novo principally by aquatic algae. Furthermore, within aquatic ecosystems these molecules may be synthesized from precursor fatty acid molecules and/or concentrated as they are conveyed to animals consumed by humans. For example, in salmonid fish DHA and EPA constitute ~40% of total fatty acids, whereas in typical marine and freshwater phytoplankton EPA and DHA account for between 2% and 20% of total fatty acids. In humans, EPA and DHA play key roles in heart health, immune and inflammatory responses, visual acuity as well being major components of neurological tissues such as the brain and spinal cord. This realization has prompted great concern in the fisheries management community that the world's natural supply of EPA and DHA is being overexploited. There is also concern that global climate change and/or eutrophication processes may be modifying the production and availability of these molecules in aquatic ecosystems. Tremendous strides, as summarized in this book, have been made in our understanding of the specific enzymatic pathways by which various lipids are synthesized by producers and transformed by consumers within aquatic ecosystems. Recent research also indicates that in addition to EFAs, phyto-sterol lipids may play critical roles in the nutritional physiology aquatic fauna. This book also has state-of-the-art chapters on the utility of fatty acids are biomarkers of material and energy transfer in aquatic ecosystems. Primary producers at the base of aquatic food webs generally have distinctive fatty acid profiles and many studies have shown that these fatty acid "signatures" can be used as tracers of food web dynamics. Lipids also play important roles in the trophic transfer of a variety of lipid-soluble persistent organic pollutants, and selectively accumulate even with non-lipid soluble contaminants such as the powerful neurotoxin methyl mercury. Certain fatty acids may also serve as the substrates from which some toxins and allelopathic metabolites are produced. This book will be of interest to a wide range of scientists from the fields of marine and freshwater plankton ecology, algal physiology, fisheries management, nutritional science, food web ecology, aquaculture, toxicology, and environmental science. Michael T. Arts is a research scientist with Environment Canada at the National Water Research Institute in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Michael T. Brett is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. Martin J. Kainz is a research scientist at the WasserCluster - Biologische Station Lunz; an inter-university center dedicated to freshwater sciences research and education, in Lunz am See, Austria.

Aquatic ecology --- Lipids --- Food chains (Ecology) --- Aquatic ecology. --- Food chains (Ecology). --- Lipids.

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Food chains (Ecology) --- Mathematical models --- Ecology --- Food supply --- Mathematics. --- Models --- Mathematical models. --- theoretical --- Issue --- Ecology. --- Food supply. --- theoretical. --- Theoretical. --- Food chains (Ecology) - Mathematical models

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Dynamic Food Webs challenges us to rethink what factors may determine ecological and evolutionary pathways of food web development. It touches upon the intriguing idea that trophic interactions drive patterns and dynamics at different levels of biological organization: dynamics in species composition, dynamics in population life-history parameters and abundances, and dynamics in individual growth, size and behavior. These dynamics are shown to be strongly interrelated governing food web structure and stability and the role of populations and communities play in ecosystem functioning.

Animal population --- plant population --- population dynamics --- Food chains --- Models --- Biodiversity --- ecosystems --- Biological competition --- Food chains (Ecology). --- Food chains (Ecology) --- Food webs (Ecology) --- Trophic ecology --- Animals --- Ecology --- Nutrient cycles --- Food

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The multitrophic level approach to ecology addresses the complexity of food webs much more realistically than the traditional focus on simple systems and interactions. Only in the last few decades have ecologists become interested in the nature of more complex systems including tritrophic interactions between plants, herbivores and natural enemies. Plants may directly influence the behaviour of their herbivores' natural enemies, ecological interactions between two species are often indirectly mediated by a third species, landscape structure directly affects local tritrophic interactions and below-ground food webs are vital to above-ground organisms. The relative importance of top-down effects (control by predators) and bottom-up effects (control by resources) must also be determined. These interactions are explored in this exciting volume by expert researchers from a variety of ecological fields. This book provides a much-needed synthesis of multitrophic level interactions and serves as a guide for future research for ecologists of all descriptions.

Multitrophic interactions (Ecology). --- Environmental Sciences and Forestry. Environmental Management --- Environmental Protection. --- ecosystems --- Animal population --- plant population --- Biological competition --- Multitrophic interactions (Ecology) --- Interactions, Multitrophic (Ecology) --- Food chains (Ecology)