Scaling regions for food web properties.

The robustness of eight common food web properties is examined with respect to web size. We show that the current controversy concerning the scale dependence or scale invariance of these properties can be resolved by accounting for scaling constraints introduced by webs of very small size. We demonstrate statistically that the most robust way to view these properties is not to lump webs of all sizes, but to divide them into two distinct categories. For the present data set, small webs containing 12 or fewer species exhibit scale dependence, and larger webs containing more than 12 species exhibit scale invariance.