The Program consists of investigators with expertise in each of the major food web components, and with experience in field, experimental, and modeling approaches. Research projects are conducted at different levels of complexity. Individual studies range from simple observations of life history traits or distributions of a single species, to large multi-species efforts that define interactions and processes of several trophic levels within the ecosystem. The program recognizes the need to conduct both basic and applied research. Basic research also provides the framework for recognizing the significance of emerging issues.
Applied research focuses on ecosystem response to anthropogenic stressors.
This is currently the case in the Great Lakes where, over the past several decades, numerous invading species have led to unprecedented and unpredicted changes in the food web. In a broad sense, the structure and function of the food web defines the relative health of the entire living ecosystem. Changes or disruptions in the flow of energy through the various trophic levels creates instability, a potential loss of transfer efficiency, and uncertainty in predicting ultimate outcomes of management decisions. Some challenges of food web research are to separate natural variation from stressor response, to understand various links between food web components and factors that may influence these links, and to predict how food web changes may influence use of available resources.