Question

Can someone please give me a summary of this article “food web complexity and species diversity”

PAPER 38 Vel. 100, No.910 The Aseric n Natualist JanBay-Febroary, 1966 FOOD WEB COMPLEXITY AND SPECIES DIVERSITY ROBERT T. PAINE Depactment ef Zoology, Usiversiry of Vashington, Seattle, Washisgtoo distilevtin animai species gradients in species diversity tend to be well described in azoogeographic sease, they also are poorly under- Though longitudioal ot 1a stood phenonena of major ecological interest. Their importance lies in the derived implication that biological processes may be fundamentally dif- ferent in the tropics, typically the pianacle of most gradients, than in tem- perate or arctic regioes. The various bypotheses attempeing to explain gradients have recently been revieved by Fischer (1960), Simpson (1960, and Connell and Ocias (196), the latter authors additionally proposing a model which can account for the production and regalation of diversiry in ecologieał systes Understanding of che phenomenon suffers from both specific lack of syhecological data applind to particular locaLitatioos and from the ditticulty of inferingling Bechanism) solely from comparasoas on a zoogeographic scale. The positices aken in this paper are that an ultinace saderstanding of the n ly be atrived at by stady of lecal sita sioes, for instance the pronising approach of MacArthur and MacArthur 1961), and that biological interactions sach as those suggested by Hatch- . Musset inson (1939) appeer to coestirute the msost logical possibilities. The hypothesis offered berein applies to local diversiny patterms olockySnai intertidal (narin organisms, though it cooceivably has wider applications It may be stated as: "Local species dirersity is directly telated to the ef- ficiency with which predators prevent the monopolization of the major en- viroamental requisites by one species." The potential impact of this process is fimly based in ecological theory and practice. Gaase (19340. Lack (1949), and Slobodk in (1961) among others have postulated that pseda tion (or parasitiam) is capeble of preventing extinctions in competitivs Srustions, and Slobodkin (1964) has demon strated this experimentally. In eda the field, peedation is kaown tome liorate the intensity of compstition for space by barnacles (Connell, 1961b), and, ia the present seudy, predato ーTenoval has led.. locaLertinctions of certain benthic inverte race" gae In addition, as a peedictable extensicn of the hypothesis, the pro portion of predatory species is known to be relatively greater in certain di verse situations. This is true for tropical vs. temperate fish faunas (Hiatt and Strasburg, 1960, Bakas, 1960, and is seen especially clearly in the comparison of shelf water zooplankton populations (81 species, 16% of which arer camivoces) with those of the peesumably less productive though more stable Sargasso Sea (268 species, 39% carnivores) (Grice and Hart, PATiapalble prvenng extinch ons h 850

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