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Food Webs and Nutrient Cycling in Soils: Interactions and Positive Feedbacks

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Food Webs

Abstract

Traditionally, food web studies have been part of what may be called the population-community approach to ecology (O’Neill et al., 1986). Ecosystem ecologists using the process-functional approach have usually neglected population interactions in food webs, despite the fact that a mechanistic understanding of ecosystem processes such as decomposition of organic matter and nutrient cycling requires studies of the organisms performing these processes (Moore et al., 1988; Verhoef and Brussaard, 1990). Until recently, there have been few published theoretical and empirical studies relating population dynamics and food webs to ecosystem processes (and vice versa) (DeAngelis, 1992; Jones and Lawton, 1995). A combination of the two approaches can be fruitful for solving many problems in basic and applied ecology, and studies of food webs are likely to become a substantial part of this growing industry.

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Authors
  1. Janne Bengtsson
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  2. Heikki Setälä
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  3. David W. Zheng
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Vanderbilt University, Box 93B, Nashville, Tennesse, 37235, USA

    Gary A. Polis

  2. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A & M University, College Texas, 77843-2258, College Station, Texas, USA

    Kirk O. Winemiller

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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Bengtsson, J., Setälä, H., Zheng, D.W. (1996). Food Webs and Nutrient Cycling in Soils: Interactions and Positive Feedbacks. In: Polis, G.A., Winemiller, K.O. (eds) Food Webs. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7007-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7007-3_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-7009-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-7007-3

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