Sardine cycles, krill declines, and locust plagues: revisiting 'wasp-waist' food webs

Angus Atkinson; Simeon L Hill; Manuel Barange; Evgeny A Pakhomov; David Raubenheimer; Katrin Schmidt; Stephen J Simpson; Christian Reiss

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2014.03.011

Sardine cycles, krill declines, and locust plagues: revisiting 'wasp-waist' food webs

Trends Ecol Evol. 2014 Jun;29(6):309-16. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2014.03.011. Epub 2014 Apr 19.

Authors

Angus Atkinson¹, Simeon L Hill², Manuel Barange³, Evgeny A Pakhomov⁴, David Raubenheimer⁵, Katrin Schmidt², Stephen J Simpson⁶, Christian Reiss⁷

Affiliations

¹ Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL13DH, UK. Electronic address: aat@pml.ac.uk.
² British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 OET, UK.
³ Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Prospect Place, The Hoe, Plymouth, PL13DH, UK.
⁴ Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of British Columbia, 6339 Stores Road, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada.
⁵ School of Biological Sciences and the Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Heydon-Laurence Building, A08, NSW 2006, Australia; Faculty for Veterinary Science, The University of Sydney, JD Stewart Building, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁶ School of Biological Sciences and the Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Heydon-Laurence Building, A08, NSW 2006, Australia.
⁷ Antarctic Ecosystem Research Division, NOAA Fisheries, Southwest Fisheries Science Centre, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.

PMID: 24755099
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2014.03.011

Abstract

'Wasp-waist' systems are dominated by a mid trophic-level species that is thought to exert top-down control on its food and bottom-up control on its predators. Sardines, anchovy, and Antarctic krill are suggested examples, and here we use locusts to explore whether the wasp-waist concept also applies on land. These examples also display the traits of mobile aggregations and dietary diversity, which help to reduce the foraging footprint from their large, localised biomasses. This suggests that top-down control on their food operates at local aggregation scales and not at wider scales suggested by the original definition of wasp-waist. With this modification, the wasp-waist framework can cross-fertilise marine and terrestrial approaches, revealing how seemingly disparate but economically important systems operate.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Biomass*
Euphausiacea / growth & development*
Fishes / growth & development*
Food Chain*
Grasshoppers / growth & development*
Population Growth