What is a functional web?
A functional food web emphasizes interactions that strongly influence population dynamics, community composition, or ecosystem processes rather than cataloguing every observed feeding link. Weak or incidental links may be omitted, while keystone predation, dominant energy channels, and major competitive or mutualistic effects are highlighted. This differs from a source web, which traces all foods used by selected consumers, and a community web, which attempts broad linkage coverage. Functional importance depends on interaction strength and system response, not simply feeding frequency. Food-we
Ref: Fundamentals of Ecology, Odum & Barrett, 5th Ed., Ch. 3
