The strength of simulated indirect interaction modules in a real food web

► Complex ecological networks can be decomposed into small modules: understanding their statistical distributions and dynamical functioning contributes to better understanding community ecology. ► We have characterized the module structure of a real food web and performed stochastic dynamical simulation (and sensitivity analysis) on the model. We compared the strength of indirect interactions mediated through different types of food web modules. ► Food supply (from prey to predator interaction) was the only interaction of significantly stronger effect, while others (including direct and indirect effects) have been found to be of the same strength.