Explaining biodiversity

This research will explain why some places have diverse complex communities of plants and animals, while others do not. Bringing all food webs described from around the world I will identify what factors predispose systems to having high biodiversity. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the roles of energy supply, interactions between species and connections between patches in the landscape. A suite of new food webs will then be described and experimental treatments applied to understand the effects of fragmentation, compression and climate change on food web structure. This research will be the first to bring the relevant data together, and to seek to integrate food web theory into an applied study.