Peralta-Maraver, IgnacioRobertson, Anne L.Rezende, Enrico L.Lemes da Silva, Aurea LuizaTonetta, DeniseLopes, MichelleSchmitt, RafaelLeite, Nei K.Nuñer, AlexPetrucio, Mauricio M.2024-04-302024-04-302017-07Ecology and Evolution Volume 7, Issue 13, Pages 4534 - 4542July 20172045-7758https://repositorio.unab.cl/handle/ria/56490Indexación: ScopusFood web studies provide a useful tool to assess the organization and complexity of natural communities. Nevertheless, the seasonal dynamics of food web properties, their environmental correlates, and potential association with community diversity and stability remain poorly studied. Here, we condensed an incomplete 6-year community dataset of a subtropical coastal lake to examine how monthly variation in diversity impacts food web structure over an idealized time series for an averaged year. Phytoplankton, zooplankton, macroinvertebrates, and fish were mostly resolved to species level (n = 120 trophospecies). Our results showed that the seasonal organization of the food web could be aggregated into two clusters of months grouped here as ‘summer’ and ‘winter’. During ‘winter’, the food web decreases in size and complexity, with the number of trophospecies dropping from 106 to 82 (a 22.6% decrease in the number of nodes) and the trophic interactions from 1,049 to 637 between month extremes (a 39.3% drop in the number of links). The observed simplification in food web structure during ‘winter’ suggests that community stability is more vulnerable to the impact of any change during this period. © 2017 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.enaquatic systemscommunity structuretop-down regulationtrophic interactionsArtículoCC BY 4.0 DEED Atribución 4.0 Internacional10.1002/ece3.3031