Authors
David A Bohan, Geoffrey Caron-Lormier, Stephen Muggleton, Alan Raybould, Alireza Tamaddoni-Nezhad
Publication date
2011/12/29
Journal
PloS one
Volume
6
Issue
12
Pages
e29028
Publisher
Public Library of Science
Description
Networks of trophic links (food webs) are used to describe and understand mechanistic routes for translocation of energy (biomass) between species. However, a relatively low proportion of ecosystems have been studied using food web approaches due to difficulties in making observations on large numbers of species. In this paper we demonstrate that Machine Learning of food webs, using a logic-based approach called A/ILP, can generate plausible and testable food webs from field sample data. Our example data come from a national-scale Vortis suction sampling of invertebrates from arable fields in Great Britain. We found that 45 invertebrate species or taxa, representing approximately 25% of the sample and about 74% of the invertebrate individuals included in the learning, were hypothesized to be linked. As might be expected, detritivore Collembola were consistently the most important prey. Generalist and omnivorous carabid beetles were hypothesized to be the dominant predators of the system. We were, however, surprised by the importance of carabid larvae suggested by the machine learning as predators of a wide variety of prey. High probability links were hypothesized for widespread, potentially destabilizing, intra-guild predation; predictions that could be experimentally tested. Many of the high probability links in the model have already been observed or suggested for this system, supporting our contention that A/ILP learning can produce plausible food webs from sample data, independent of our preconceptions about “who eats whom.” Well-characterised links in the literature correspond with links ascribed with high probability …
Total citations
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Scholar articles
DA Bohan, A Raybould, C Mulder, G Woodward… - Advances in ecological research, 2013
A Tamaddoni-Nezhad, GA Milani, A Raybould… - Advances in Ecological Research, 2013
A Tamaddoni-Nezhad, D Bohan, A Raybould… - … Logic Programming: 21st International Conference, ILP …, 2012
A Tamaddoni-Nezhad, D Bohan, A Raybould… - … Logic Programming: 24th International Conference, ILP …, 2015