Aggregation and removal of weak-links in food-web models: system stability and recovery from disturbance

Our findings infer a clear contradiction. Aggregated models possessed fewer weak links but recovered from a disturbance more quickly than disaggregated models (i.e., they were more stable). By contrast, food-webs from which weak links were specifically removed were the least stable of all the models tested. Thus whether weak links are removed through 'lumping' or 'chopping' seems to have very different system consequences.