Tom Suchanek
Kevin D. Lafferty
2016
<p><span>“Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity” (Paine 1966) is the most-cited empirical article published in the </span><i>American Naturalist</i><span>. In short, Paine removed predatory sea stars (</span><i>Pisaster ochraceus</i><span>) from the rocky intertidal and watched the key prey species, mussels (</span><i>Mytilus californianus</i><span>), crowd out seven subordinate primary space-holding species. However, because these mussels are a foundational species, they provide three-dimensional habitat for over 300 associated species inhabiting the mussel beds; thus, removing sea stars significantly increases community-wide diversity. In any case, most ecologists cite Paine (1966) to support a statement that predators increase diversity by interfering with competition. Although detractors remained skeptical of top-down effects and keystone concepts, the paradigm that predation increases diversity spread. By 1991, “Food Web Complexity and Species Diversity” was considered a classic ecological paper, and after 50 years it continues to influence ecological theory and conservation biology.</span></p>
application/pdf
10.1086/688045
en
American Society of Naturalists
Revisiting Paine’s 1966 sea star removal experiment, the most-cited empirical article in the American Naturalist
article