Abstract
We review and criticize Cohen's (1978) application of graph theory to food web analysis. Two novel features of food web matrices, block submatrices and equivalent columns, are identified in empirical food webs. The first feature represents the different kinds of feeding present in a community. The second feature represents predators with equivalent diets and is probably an observational artifact. Failure to model these features and equivalent columns in dominant clique matrices is responsible for Cohen's finding an improbably high number of interval food webs. Cohen's definition of the interval food web as a food web with interval diet overlaps is shown to be inappropriate and the simpler interval diet criterion is offered in its place.
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