ArticleCommunications biology2019
Historical contingency and productivity effects on food-chain length.
Article in Communications biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Glacier retreat shapes organic nutrient availability across lake succession.Science advances · 2026Article
- Eutrophication triggered changes in network structure and fluxes of the Comacchio Lagoon (Italy).PloS one · 2025Article
- Anchovy boom and bust linked to trophic shifts in larval diet.Nature communications · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Food-chain length (FCL) is a fundamental ecosystem attribute, integrating information on both food web composition and ecosystem processes. It remains untested whether FCL also reflects the history of community assembly known to affect community composition and ecosystem functioning. Here, we performed microcosm experiments with a copepod (top predator), two ciliate species (intermediate consumers), and bacteria (producers), and modified the sequence of species introduction into the microcosm at four productivity levels to jointly test the effects of historical contingency and productivity on FCL. FCL increased when the top predator was introduced last; thus, the trophic position of the copepod reflected assembly history. A shorter FCL occurred at the highest productivity level, probably because the predator switched to feeding at the lower trophic levels because of the abundant basal resource. Thus, we present empirical evidence that FCL was determined by historical contingency, likely caused by priority effects, and by productivity.
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