Regensburg 2013 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 31: Statistical Physics in Biological Systems III (joint with DY)

BP 31.5: Talk

Thursday, March 14, 2013, 16:00–16:15, H46

The effect of migration between patches on the stability of foodwebs — •Sebastian Plitzko and Barbara Drossel — Institut für Festkörperphysik, TU Darmstadt, Germany

During recent years, several factors that stabilize food webs have been identified. Among these are allometric scaling of metabolism with body size and adaptive foraging. So far, food web models rarely take space into account. However, it is known that being distributed over several spatial patches can have positive as well as negative effects on the stability of metacommunities.

Using computer simulations for the population dynamics of systems with many species, we investigate the stability of food webs that are distributed over several patches that are connected by migration. We evaluate species persistence in dependence of food-web complexity, patch arrangement, and migration rule. In particular, we study conditions under which migration alone, without the above-mentioned additional stabilizing factors, can increase food-web stability. We also determine whether food webs that already have a high stability can gain further by being distributed over several patches.