Foundation species boost food web complexity, shaping ecosystems for resilience.
Foundation species like plants and corals help make food webs more complex by providing habitats for other species. This study looked at 58 food webs in different ecosystems and found that foundation species consistently enhance food web complexity. They found that these species help species throughout the food web, but they have a stronger effect on certain groups like carnivores. This means that food webs with foundation species have more species at different levels, making them more stable.