演講者：劉維中教授

單　位：中央研究院統計科學研究所

日　期：2010年12月22日　PM 14:30

地　點：國立高雄大學理學院408室

講　題：A fish tank model for food webs

摘　要：

A food web is a type of ecological network. In a food web, nodes represent individual species and links represent trophic interaction between species. In the past few decades, there have existed several  models for food webs. Those models provide possible explanations on why and how the food webs we observe today arrive at their respective network structure. Those well established models all rely on two common parameters, the numbers of nodes and links, as well as assuming that species are ranked in some hierarchical order or ecological dimension. Under those model assumptions species are then allowed to interact with each other depending on their relative positions in relevant ecological dimensions resulting in simulated food webs that hopefully can capture characteristics of their real-life counterparts. In this presentation, we propose a simple model for food webs. Our model differ from the previous models in that we do not have the prior assumption of species being ordered in an ecological dimension, and we do not assume a particular number of trophic interactions. Our model here takes two basic parameters, the number of species and the number of resources, and allows species to compete for resources to construct food webs. One critical assumption in our model here is that after a species obtains resources, it will then become new resources for other species to utilize. In essence, our model here constructs simulated food webs by passing resources among different species.