Topological traits are associated with the prevalence of IGP modules in empirical food webs

Abstract

Exploring how food webs are assembled from basic modules is charming and crucial for understanding how communities are self-organized. As one of the basic modules, intraguild predation (IGP) consists of a prey being consumed by both an intermediate and a top predator, with the former also being consumed by the latter (thus encompassing both predation and competition). This interaction has been shown to govern food web stability, and therefore underpin the organization of network structures. While some studies have been made in understanding the factors and mechanisms behind the prevalence of IGP modules in food webs, the specific role of food web topological structures in relation to these modules remains largely unexplored and is not well understood. Here, 103 food webs were analyzed, and we found that the number of modules in each food web was largely determined by taxon richness and connectance. After controlling richness and connectance, the specific scale-free pattern and core-periphery structure of empirical food webs explains the higher prevalence of IGP modules in empirical food webs better than by chance. Lastly, the loss of taxa which supported large number of IGP modules would lead to serious damage to food web robustness, indicating the keystone role of these taxa in maintaining food web structure and stability. Our results provide new insight into the assembly of empirical food webs from the perspective of IGP modules.