Briand F, Cohen J E
World Conservation Center, International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland.
Science. 1987 Nov 13;238(4829):956-60. doi: 10.1126/science.3672136.
In 113 community food webs from natural communities, the average and maximal lengths of food chains are independent of primary productivity, contrary to the hypothesis that longer food chains should arise when more energy is available at their base. Environmental variability alone also does not appear to constrain average or maximal chain length. Environments that are three dimensional or solid, however, such as a forest canopy or the water column of the open ocean, have distinctly longer food chains than environments that are two dimensional or flat, such as a grassland or lake bottom.
在来自自然群落的113个群落食物网中，食物链的平均长度和最大长度与初级生产力无关，这与以下假设相反：当食物链基部有更多能量可用时，应该会出现更长的食物链。仅环境变异性似乎也不会限制平均或最大链长。然而，三维或立体的环境，如森林冠层或开阔海洋的水柱，其食物链明显比二维或平坦的环境，如草原或湖底，要长。
