Research Topic

Trophic Biogeography & Metaweb

Studies on spatially structured food webs are complex because they incorporate both trophic and spatial structure, the network of species interactions is no longer strictly local, and depends on the structure and composition of neighboring locations. This area, sometimes called food web metacommunity ecology, seeks to link population dynamics with the spatial effects of dispersal and patch heterogeneity on species coexistence, species diversity, and community stability.

More recently, spatial trophic structure has been incorporated at the biogeographical scale into the trophic theory of island biogeography, opening new perspectives for implementing food web metacommunity ecology at the scales where most predictive models of species distribution are now developed. In doing so, we gain a deeper understanding of how multi-trophic communities (metaweb) are structured across multiple scales.

My research program on spatially structured food webs has been concerned with modelling species dynamics in trophic metacommunities, developing the trophic theory of island biogeography and neutral theory of trophic interactions, and producing review papers and integrated approaches.

Trophic Metacommunities

  1. Poisot T., Canard E., Mouillot D., Mouquet N., Gravel D. (2012). The dissimilarity of species interaction networks. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12002

  2. Calcagno V., Massol F., Mouquet N., Jarne P., David P. (2011). Constraints on food chain length arising from regional metacommunity dynamics. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0112

  3. Gravel D., Canard E., Guichard F., Mouquet N. (2011). Persistence Increases with Diversity and Connectance in Trophic Metacommunities. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0019374

  4. Gravel D., Mouquet N., Loreau M., Guichard F. (2010). Patch Dynamics, Persistence, and Species Coexistence in Metaecosystems. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/655426

  5. Gravel D., Guichard F., Loreau M., Mouquet N. (2010). Source and sink dynamics in meta-ecosystems. Ecology, doi.org/10.1890/09-0843.1

Trophic Theory of Island Biogeography

  1. Gray S.M., Poisot T., Harvey E., Mouquet N., Miller T.E., Gravel D. (2015). Temperature and trophic structure are driving microbial productivity along a biogeographical gradient. Ecography, doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01748

  2. Cazelles K., Mouquet N., Mouillot D., Gravel D. (2015). On the integration of biotic interaction and environmental constraints at the biogeographical scale. Ecography, doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01714

  3. Cazelles K., Araujo M.B., Mouquet N., Gravel D. (2015). A theory for species co-occurrence in interaction networks. Theoretical Ecology, doi.org/10.1007/s12080-015-0281-9

  4. Canard E., Mouquet N., Mouillot D., Stanko M., Miklisova D., Gravel D. (2014). Empirical Evaluation of Neutral Interactions in Host-Parasite Networks. The American Naturalist, doi.org/10.1086/675363

  5. Canard E., Mouquet N., Marescot L., Gaston K.J., Gravel D., Mouillot D. (2012). Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks. PLoS ONE, doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038295

  6. Gravel D., Massol F., Canard E., Mouillot D., Mouquet N. (2011). Trophic theory of island biogeography. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01667.x

Review Papers and Integrated Approaches

  1. Warren B.H., Ricklefs R.E., Thebaud C., Gravel D., Mouquet N. (2019). How Consideration of Islands Has Inspired Mainstream Ecology: Links Between the Theory of Island Biogeography and Some Other Key Theories. Elsevier eBooks, doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11788-9

  2. Massol F., Altermatt F., Gounand I., Gravel D., Leibold M.A., Mouquet N. (2016). How life-history traits affect ecosystem properties: effects of dispersal in meta-ecosystems. Oikos, doi.org/10.1111/oik.03893

  3. Poisot T., Baiser B., Dunne J.A., Kefi S., Massol F., Mouquet N., Romanuk T.N., Stouffer D.B., Wood S.A., Gravel D. (2015). mangal - making ecological network analysis simple. Ecography, doi.org/10.1111/ecog.00976

  4. Warren B.H., Simberloff D., Ricklefs R.E., Aguilee R., Condamine F.L., Gravel D., Morlon H., Mouquet N., Rosindell J., Casquet J., Conti E., Cornuault J., Fernandez-Palacios J.M., Hengl T., Norder S.J., Rijsdijk K.F., Sanmartin I., Strasberg D., Triantis K.A., Valente L., Whittaker R.J., Gillespie R.G., Emerson B.C., Thebaud C. (2015). Islands as model systems in ecology and evolution: prospects fifty years after MacArthur-Wilson. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.12398

  5. Massol F., Gravel D., Mouquet N., Cadotte M.W., Fukami T., Leibold M.A. (2011). Linking community and ecosystem dynamics through spatial ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01588.x

  6. Loreau M., Mouquet N., Holt R.D. (2003). Meta-ecosystems: a theoretical framework for a spatial ecosystem ecology. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00483.x

Other topic pages

Aesthetics iconBiodiversity Aesthetics Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning iconBiodiversity & Ecosystem Functioning Biogeography iconBiogeography, Macroecology & Ecophylogenetics Experimental evolution iconExperimental Evolution Functional biogeography iconFunctional Biogeography Functional rarity iconFunctional Rarity Metacommunities iconMetacommunities Metaecosystems iconMetaecosystems Nature for Future iconNature for Future Reviews and synthesis iconReviews and Synthesis Biodiful iconBiodiful OutreachOutreach CollaboratorsCollaborators