Complex networks in ecology

Greenbaum, Gili; Hoffman, Oren; Shalev, Omri; Zelnik, Yuval R.

doi:10.1080/15659801.2016.1145890

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…However, measures such as conditional genetic distance (cGD), which is derived from population networks that are generated under principles of network theory, inform about connections among all sampled populations, and in fact, outperform other genetic distance metrics (Dyer & Nason, 2004;Dyer, Nason, & Garrick, 2010). Social network theory has gained significant exposure in disciplines such as sociology (Easley & Kleinberg, 2010), economics (Seiler, Collins, & Fefferman, 2014), ecology (Greenbaum, Hoffman, Shalev, & Zelnik, 2015) and evolutionary biology (Greening & Fefferman, 2014;Pickrell & Pritchard, 2012); however, this approach has been unexplored in the context of the human impact of urbanization, despite urban areas being models of social networks that reflect human interactions. Instead of simply identifying evidence of population structure overall, these analyses would be invaluable to our understanding of how urban areas act as a biological network with specific connections identified that both fragment and facilitate gene flow among urban pest populations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Urbanization as a facilitator of gene flow in a human health pest

et al. 2018

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Urban fragmentation can reduce gene flow that isolates populations, reduces genetic diversity and increases population differentiation, all of which have negative conservation implications. Alternatively, gene flow may actually be increased among urban areas consistent with an urban facilitation model. In fact, urban adapter pests are able to thrive in the urban environment and may be experiencing human-mediated transport. Here, we used social network theory with a population genetic approach to investigate the impact of urbanization on genetic connectivity in the Western black widow spider, as an urban pest model of human health concern. We collected genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism variation from mitochondrial and nuclear double-digest RAD (ddRAD) sequence data sets from 210 individuals sampled from 11 urban and 10 nonurban locales across its distribution of the Western United States. From urban and nonurban contrasts of population, phylogenetic, and network analyses, urban locales have higher within-population genetic diversity, lower between-population genetic differentiation and higher estimates of genetic connectivity. Social network analyses show that urban locales not only have more connections, but can act as hubs that drive connectivity among nonurban locales, which show signatures of historical isolation. These results are consistent with an urban facilitation model of gene flow and demonstrate the importance of sampling multiple cities and markers to identify the role that urbanization has had on larger spatial scales. As the urban landscape continues to grow, this approach will help determine what factors influence the spread and adaptation of pests, like the venomous black widow spider, in building policies for human and biodiversity health.

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confidence: 99%

Urbanization as a facilitator of gene flow in a human health pest

et al. 2018

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“…; Bascompte ; Greenbaum et al . ), real estate markets (Seiler et al . ), epidemiology (Keeling & Eames ; Fefferman & Ng ), criminology (Calvo‐Armengol & Zenou ), animal behaviour (Croft et al .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Network theory is a relatively new discipline which has seen application in diverse fields, such as sociology (Easley & Kleinberg 2010), ecology (Proulx et al 2005;Bascompte 2007; Greenbaum et al 2015), real estate markets (Seiler et al 2014), epidemiology (Keeling & Eames 2005;Fefferman & Ng 2007), criminology (Calvo-Armengol & Zenou 2004), animal behaviour (Croft et al 2008;Hock & Fefferman 2011), evolutionary biology (Pickrell & Pritchard 2012;Greening & Fefferman 2014) and many others. This discipline, a branch of discrete mathematics, studies properties of mathematical constructs composed of discrete elements and connections of various types between them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of network methods for understanding evolutionary dynamics in discrete habitats

Greenbaum

Fefferman

2017

Molecular Ecology

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In populations occupying discrete habitat patches, gene flow between habitat patches may form an intricate population structure. In such structures, the evolutionary dynamics resulting from interaction of gene-flow patterns with other evolutionary forces may be exceedingly complex. Several models describing gene flow between discrete habitat patches have been presented in the population-genetics literature; however, these models have usually addressed relatively simple settings of habitable patches and have stopped short of providing general methodologies for addressing nontrivial gene-flow patterns. In the last decades, network theory -a branch of discrete mathematics concerned with complex interactions between discrete elements -has been applied to address several problems in population genetics by modelling gene flow between habitat patches using networks. Here, we present the idea and concepts of modelling complex gene flows in discrete habitats using networks. Our goal is to raise awareness to existing network theory applications in molecular ecology studies, as well as to outline the current and potential contribution of network methods to the understanding of evolutionary dynamics in discrete habitats. We review the main branches of network theory that have been, or that we believe potentially could be, applied to population genetics and molecular ecology research. We address applications to theoretical modelling and to empirical population-genetic studies, and we highlight future directions for extending the integration of network science with molecular ecology.

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Complex networks in ecology

Cited by 2 publications

References 9 publications

Urbanization as a facilitator of gene flow in a human health pest

Urbanization as a facilitator of gene flow in a human health pest

Application of network methods for understanding evolutionary dynamics in discrete habitats

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