Rosalyn Rael

• 
  Evolution of body size in food webs
  Rosalyn Rael
  Body size has been shown to be a significant factor in shaping the structure of food webs, which are network models of the flow of energy in an ecosystem. Recent studies have shown that body size constraints can influence food web dynamics through prey preference and foraging behavior, and can thereby influence the stability of these ecosystem models. Because of its significance, we use body size as the species strategy in an evolutionary game theory approach to studying the influence of predation at individual trophic levels on evolutionarily stable strategies (ESS) in food webs.
  
  We systematically construct small (3-5 species) food webs, and combine ecological and evolutionary dynamics using differential equation models to show how the addition of each trophic level impacts the equilibrium strategies of other species. The strategy in our model influences the intrinsic growth rate and carrying capacity of the basal (plant) species, and the interaction rates across species. We show that when a consumer is introduced, the equilibrium strategy of the basal species evolves toward a value that increases the intrinsic growth rate; however, the strength of this effect is mediated by predator species at the third trophic level. We also show how size-based prey preference can influence strategy dynamics and population sizes over long time scales. These results suggest that understanding evolution of body size is important for understanding the trophic interactions that form the basis for large-scale food web structure and function.