The architecture of multifunctional ecological networks

Abstract

Understanding how biotic interactions affect ecosystem functioning has been a research priority in natural sciences due to their critical role in bolstering ecological resilience. Yet, traditional assessment of ecological complexity typically focus on species-species effective interactions that mediate a particular function (e.g. pollination or seed dispersa), overlooking the synergistic effect of multiple functions that further underpin species-function and function-function interactions in multifunctional ecosystems. At the same time, while ecological network theory holds a potential to quantify the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem multifunctionality, its connection has been done mainly conceptually, due to challenges measuring different interactions and establishing their relevance across multiple niche dimensions. Such lack of quantitative studies therefore limits our ability to determine which species and interactions are important to maintain the multiple functions of ecosystems. Here we develop a framework -derived from a resource-consumer-function tensor analysis- that bridges these gaps by framing biodiversity-ecosystem multifunctionality in terms of multilayer ecological network theory. Its application to recently collected ecological data -reporting weighted interactions between plants, animals and fungi across multiple function types- allows to (i) unveil and quantify the existence of both (multi-functional) keystone species and a dual function keystoneness pattern, and (ii) project plants and functions into a similarity space where clear clusters emerge and the importance of weak links is manifested. This dual insight from species and functional perspectives will better guide conservation efforts to reduce biodiversity loss.