Quantifying the qualitative: empirical network patterns emerge from differing degrees of stability

<p>Presentation of my research on stability selection in food webs for the workshop<strong> Non-adaptive selection: explaining macroscopic laws in ecology and evolution</strong> (link below to workshop homepage). </p> <p>The basic idea is that selection against unstable food web structures may be a plausible explanation for many of the observed structural patterns in food webs. In this presentation I review evidence for the role of systemic selection in driving two food web patterns: food chain length and food web motifs. </p> <p>For more details please see my paper in <em>Food Webs</em> on why food chains are so short (link below). My paper on motifs is currently in review.