ReviewEcology letters2019
Pyramids and cascades: a synthesis of food chain functioning and stability.
Review in Ecology letters, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed.
- Interplay Between Species Traits, Community and Environmental Context Governs Temporal Stability in Riverine Fish Populations.Ecology letters · 2026Article
- Opposing diversity-stability relationships within versus between aquatic producers and consumers.National science review · 2026Article
- The effect of Mauritanian and Benguela upwelling waters on micronekton (Decapoda, Euphausiacea, and Lophogastrida) in the Southeastern Atlantic Ocean.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The eco-evolutionary assembly of complex communities with multiple interaction types.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Interplay of structured and random interactions in complex ecosystems dynamics.PLoS computational biology · 2025Article
- Molecular assessment of food web dynamics identifies critical periods for managing resilience in biological pest control.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Functional diversity shapes the stability of reef fish biomass under global change.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- The trophic distribution of biomass in ecosystems with co-occurring wildlife and livestock.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Panel-based assessment of ecosystem condition as a platform for adaptive and knowledge driven management.Environmental management · 2024Article
- Unlocking ensemble ecosystem modelling for large and complex networks.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Emergent competition shapes top-down versus bottom-up control in multi-trophic ecosystems.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Quality control of Platycodon grandiflorum (Jacq.) A. DC. based on value chains and food chain analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The coordination of green-brown food webs and their disruption by anthropogenic nutrient inputs.Global ecology and biogeography : a journal of macroecology · 2022Article
- Resource limitation determines realized thermal performance of consumers in trophodynamic models.Ecology letters · 2022Article
- Consistent predator-prey biomass scaling in complex food webs.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Stoichiometric constraints modulate temperature and nutrient effects on biomass distribution and community stability.Oikos (Copenhagen, Denmark) · 2022Article
- Network analysis suggests changes in food web stability produced by bottom trawl fishery in Patagonia.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Body size and food-web interactions mediate species range shifts under warming.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- The global ocean size spectrum from bacteria to whales.Science advances · 2021Article
- Theory of temperature-dependent consumer-resource interactions.Ecology letters · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Food chain theory is one of the cornerstones of ecology, providing many of its basic predictions, such as biomass pyramids, trophic cascades and predator-prey oscillations. Yet, ninety years into this theory, the conditions under which these patterns may occur and persist in nature remain subject to debate. Rather than address each pattern in isolation, we propose that they must be understood together, calling for synthesis in a fragmented landscape of theoretical and empirical results. As a first step, we propose a minimal theory that combines the long-standing energetic and dynamical approaches of food chains. We chart theoretical predictions on a concise map, where two main regimes emerge: across various functioning and stability metrics, one regime is characterised by pyramidal patterns and the other by cascade patterns. The axes of this map combine key physiological and ecological variables, such as metabolic rates and self-regulation. A quantitative comparison with data sheds light on conflicting theoretical predictions and empirical puzzles, from size spectra to causes of trophic cascade strength. We conclude that drawing systematic connections between various existing approaches to food chains, and between their predictions on functioning and stability, is a crucial step in confronting this theory to real ecosystems.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.