Multiple interactions networks: towards more realistic descriptions of the web of life

García‐Callejas, David; Molowny‐Horas, Roberto; Araújo, Miguel B.

doi:10.1111/oik.04428

Cited by 75 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 102 publications

(138 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Few studies have empirically examined the response of network structure and robustness to agricultural intensification, a predominant environmental disturbance of the Anthropocene (Tylianakis et al ; Grass et al ), and fewer still have attempted to characterise this relationship specifically for networks that include both mutualistic and antagonistic interactions of animals and plants (García‐Callejas et al ). We present evidence for three main conclusions: First, anthropogenic disturbance, in the form of agricultural intensification, drove changes in hybrid network structure and network robustness.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural intensification drives changes in hybrid network robustness by modifying network structure

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Within ecological communities, species engage in myriad interaction types, yet empirical examples of hybrid species interaction networks composed of multiple types of interactions are still scarce. A key knowledge gap is understanding how the structure and stability of such hybrid networks are affected by anthropogenic disturbance. Using 15,169 interaction observations, we constructed 16 hybrid herbivore‐plant‐pollinator networks along an agricultural intensification gradient to explore changes in network structure and robustness to local extinctions. We found that agricultural intensification led to declines in modularity but increases in nestedness and connectance. Notably, network connectance, a structural feature typically thought to increase robustness, caused declines in hybrid network robustness, but the directionality of changes in robustness along the gradient depended on the order of local species extinctions. Our results not only demonstrate the impacts of anthropogenic disturbance on hybrid network structure, but they also provide unexpected insights into the structure‐stability relationship of hybrid networks.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural intensification drives changes in hybrid network robustness by modifying network structure

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Due to the difficulty in obtaining reliable estimates of multiple interactions at once in empirical communities (García‐Callejas et al. ), we currently do not know whether the distribution and topology of interaction types is homogeneous across communities or how it is influenced by habitat type or environmental factors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This allows the comparison between the strength of different interactions, i.e., it is an example of an equal footing network (García‐Callejas et al. ). The effective growth rate is modeled as:

r_{i} = r_{i}^{o} + \sum_{j = 1, j \neq i}^{n} I_{i, j} - false(α_{i} + c_{i} \sum_{j = 1, j \neq i}^{n} I_{i, j} false) N_{i}

where

r_{i}^{o}

is the intrinsic growth rate, α i is the friction term that regulates the asymptotic behavior of the function, c i is a proportionality constant, and I i,j is the impact function from Eq.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The effect of multiple biotic interaction types on species persistence

García‐Callejas

Molowny‐Horas

Araújo

2018

Ecology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

No species can persist in isolation from other species, but how biotic interactions affect species persistence is still a matter of inquiry. Is persistence more likely in communities with higher proportion of competing species, or in communities with more positive interactions? How do different components of community structure mediate this relationship? We address these questions using a novel simulation framework that generates realistic communities with varying numbers of species and different proportions of biotic interaction types within and across trophic levels. We show that when communities have fewer species, persistence is more likely if positive interactions-such as mutualism and commensalism-are prevalent. In species-rich communities, the disproportionate effect of positive interactions on persistence is diluted and different combinations of biotic interaction types can coexist without affecting persistence significantly. We present the first theoretical examination of how multiple-interaction networks with varying architectures relate to local species persistence, and provide insight about the underlying causes of stability in communities.

show abstract

“…The theoretical framework for multilayer networks (Boccaletti et al, ; Kivelä et al, ) and their implementation in ecology (Pilosof, Porter, Pascual, & Kéfi, ) already exist. Indeed, theoretical contributions are already helping to bridge multilayer networks and ecological theory (García‐Callejas, Molowny‐Horas, & Araújo, ; Godoy, Bartomeus, Rohr, & Saavedra, ). Briefly, multilayer networks provide a way to encode different entities and/or interactions in a single network by distinguishing between types of network edges (Boccaletti et al, ; Kivelä et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seeing the forest for the trees: Putting multilayer networks to work for community ecology

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A framework for the description and analysis of multilayer networks is established in statistical physics, and calls are increasing for their adoption by community ecologists. Multilayer networks in community ecology will allow space, time and multiple interaction types to be incorporated into species interaction networks. While the multilayer network framework is applicable to ecological questions, it is one thing to be able to describe ecological communities as multilayer networks and another for multilayer networks to actually prove useful for answering ecological questions. Importantly, documenting multilayer network structure requires substantially greater empirical investment than standard ecological networks. In response, we argue that this additional effort is worthwhile and describe a series of research lines where we expect multilayer networks will generate the greatest impact. Inter‐layer edges are the key component that differentiate multilayer networks from standard ecological networks. Inter‐layer edges join different networks—termed layers—together and represent ecological processes central to the species interactions studied (e.g., inter‐layer edges representing movement for networks separated in space). Inter‐layer edges may take a variety of forms, be species‐ or network‐specific, and be measured with a large suite of empirical techniques. Additionally, the sheer size of ecological multilayer networks also requires some changes to empirical data collection around interaction quantification, collaborative efforts and collation in public databases. Network ecology has already touched on a wide swath of ecology and evolutionary biology. Because network stability and patterns of species linkage are the most developed areas of network ecology, they are a natural starting place for multilayer investigations. However, multilayer networks will also provide novel insights to niche partitioning, the connection between traits and species’ interactions, and even the geographic mosaic of co‐evolution. Synthesis. Multilayer networks provide a formal way to bring together the study of species interaction networks and the processes that influence them. However, describing inter‐layer edges and the increasing amounts of data required represent challenges. The pay‐off for added investment will be ecological networks that describe the composition and capture the dynamics of ecological communities more completely and, consequently, have greater power for understanding the patterns and processes that underpin diversity in ecological communities. A http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2435.13237/suppinfo is available for this article.

show abstract

Multiple interactions networks: towards more realistic descriptions of the web of life

Cited by 75 publications

References 102 publications

Agricultural intensification drives changes in hybrid network robustness by modifying network structure

Agricultural intensification drives changes in hybrid network robustness by modifying network structure

The effect of multiple biotic interaction types on species persistence

Seeing the forest for the trees: Putting multilayer networks to work for community ecology

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About