Body mass and temperature dependencies of herbivorous feeding

Title: Body mass and temperature dependencies of herbivorous feeding interactions.
Type: Literature & Meta-study
Degree: Suitable for Bachelor or Master thesis
Description: Feeding interactions are the energetic backbone of all ecosystems. Moreover, their strength and distribution determine ecosystem stability and ecosystem functioning (1,2). Biological rates in general depend strongly on body mass and temperature (3,4) and where successfully used to evaluate population stability (5,6), food web stability (7) and ecosystem functioning (8). The body mass and temperature dependencies of plant growth and production (9,10) as well as the body mass and temperature dependencies of the feeding rates of carnivorous organisms are already explored in great detail and several meta-studies have summarized the findings (11–14). However, there is a critical lack of generalized knowledge about an important link of these trophic levels: the feeding rates of herbivorous organisms.
In a literature search your will compile a data base of herbivorous feeding rates. Moreover, you will analyze the aggregated and standardized information therein. As a master student, you should also apply your findings and simulate species interactions with a computer model based on the empirical findings.
Requirements: You should be interested in ecological principles such as Metabolic Theory of Ecology. Moreover, experience in literature mining using ISI Web of Science of Google Scholar as well as experience in the statistical software “R” are beneficial.
Start Date: Anytime
Contact(s): Björn Rall, Amrei Binzer & Anthony I. Dell
Literature:
1. McCann KS, Hastings A, Huxel GR. Weak trophic interactions and the balance of nature. Nature. 1998 Oct 22;395(6704):794–8.
2. Neutel A-M, Heesterbeek JAP, de Ruiter PC. Stability in real food webs: Weak links in long loops. Science. 2002 May 10;296(5570):1120–3.
3. Kleiber M. The Fire of life: an introduction to animal energetics. New York: Wiley; 1961.
4. Brown JH, Gillooly JF, Allen AP, Savage VM, West GB. Toward a metabolic theory of ecology. Ecology. 2004;85(7):1771–89.
5. Yodzis P, Innes S. Body size and consumer-resource dynamics. Am. Nat. 1992;139(6):1151–75.
6. Binzer A, Guill C, Brose U, Rall BC. The dynamics of food chains under climate change and nutrient enrichment. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 2012;THIS ISSUE.
7. Brose U, Williams RJ, Martinez ND. Allometric scaling enhances stability in complex food webs. Ecol. Lett. 2006;9(11):1228–36.
8. Schneider FD, Scheu S, Brose U. Body mass constraints on feeding rates determine the consequences of predator loss. Ecology Letters. 2012 May 1;15(5):436–43.
9. Ernest SKM, Enquist BJ, Brown JH, Charnov EL, Gillooly JF, Savage VM, et al. Thermodynamic and metabolic effects on the scaling of production and population energy use. Ecology Letters. 2003 Nov;6(11):990–5.
10. Savage VM, Gillooly JF, Brown JH, West GB, Charnov EL. Effects of body size and temperature on population growth. Am. Nat. 2004 Mar;163(3):429–41.
11. Hansen P, Bjornsen P, Hansen B. Zooplankton grazing and growth: Scaling within the 2-2,000-mu m body size range. Limnol. Oceangr. 1997 Jun;42(4):687–704.
12. Englund G, Öhlund G, Hein CL, Diehl S. Temperature dependence of the functional response. Ecol. Lett. 2011 Sep 1;14(9):914–21.
13. Pawar S, Dell AI, Savage VM. Dimensionality of consumer search space drives trophic interaction strengths. Nature. 2012 Jun 28;486(7404):485–9.
14. Rall BC, Brose U, Hartvig M, Kalinkat G, Schwarzmüller F, Vucic-Pestic O, et al. Universal temperature and body-mass scaling of feeding rates. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. 2012 May 11;367(1605):2923–34.