Abstract
Food webs are characterized not only by the lengths of the chains linking nutrient and energy flows, but also by the total number of species in the web and the number of species at each trophic level. Community diversity is to some extent a measure of the number of species that fill similar functional roles. Species occupying the same trophic level may compete for resources represented by lower trophic levels. The nature of the relation between species and their resources (energy and nutrients from the lower trophic levels) determines how many species populations may share a trophic level in a particular environment.
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© 1992 D. L. De Angelis
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DeAngelis, D.L. (1992). Competition and nutrients. In: Dynamics of Nutrient Cycling and Food Webs. Population and Community Biology Series, vol 9. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2342-6_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-2342-6_9
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-0-412-29840-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-2342-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive