Journal ArticleDOI
The dimensionality of ecological networks
Anna Eklöf,Ute Jacob,Jason C. Kopp,Jordi Bosch,Rocío Castro-Urgal,Natacha P. Chacoff,Bo Dalsgaard,Claudio de Sassi,Mauro Galetti,Paulo R. Guimarães,Silvia B. Lomáscolo,Silvia B. Lomáscolo,Ana M. Martín González,Marco Aurélio Pizo,Romina Rader,Anselm Rodrigo,Jason M. Tylianakis,Diego P. Vázquez,Diego P. Vázquez,Stefano Allesina +19 more
TLDR
It is shown that accounting for a few traits dramatically improves the understanding of the structure of ecological networks, and matching traits for resources and consumers, for example, fruit size and bill gape, are the most successful combinations.Abstract:
How many dimensions (trait-axes) are required to predict whether two species interact? This unanswered question originated with the idea of ecological niches, and yet bears relevance today for understanding what determines network structure. Here, we analyse a set of 200 ecological networks, including food webs, antagonistic and mutualistic networks, and find that the number of dimensions needed to completely explain all interactions is small ( < 10), with model selection favouring less than five. Using 18 high-quality webs including several species traits, we identify which traits contribute the most to explaining network structure. We show that accounting for a few traits dramatically improves our understanding of the structure of ecological networks. Matching traits for resources and consumers, for example, fruit size and bill gape, are the most successful combinations. These results link ecologically important species attributes to large-scale community structure.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Plant and animal functional diversity drive mutualistic network assembly across an elevational gradient
Jörg Albrecht,Alice Classen,Maximilian G. R. Vollstädt,Antonia V. Mayr,Neduvoto P. Mollel,David Schellenberger Costa,David Schellenberger Costa,Hamadi I. Dulle,Markus Fischer,Andreas Hemp,Kim M. Howell,Michael Kleyer,Thomas Nauss,Marcell K. Peters,Marco Tschapka,Marco Tschapka,Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter,Katrin Böhning-Gaese,Matthias Schleuning +18 more
TL;DR: It is shown that network structure varies across an elevational gradient owing to bottom-up and top-down effects of functional diversity, which reveals that climatic constraints on the functional diversity of either plants or animals determine the relative importance of bottom- up andtop-down control in plant–animal interaction networks.
Journal ArticleDOI
Determinants of the microstructure of plant–pollinator networks
Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury,Christopher N. Kaiser-Bunbury,Diego P. Vázquez,Diego P. Vázquez,Martina Stang,Jaboury Ghazoul +5 more
TL;DR: Floral and pollinator community composition and species identities and their abundances were strong determinants of the microstructure of pairwise interactions among the networks, explaining almost 69% of their variation.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Labile Limits of Forbidden Interactions
TL;DR: It is shown how intraspecific trait variability at different spatiotemporal scales, and through ontogeny, reduces the expected prevalence of forbidden interactions.
Journal ArticleDOI
Machine learning algorithms to infer trait-matching and predict species interactions in ecological networks
TL;DR: It is found that the best ML models can successfully predict species interactions in plant–pollinator networks, outperforming GLM models by a substantial margin, and that flexible ML models offer many advantages over traditional regression models for understanding interaction networks.
Journal ArticleDOI
The mechanics of predator-prey interactions : first principles of physics predict predator-prey size ratios
TL;DR: Two new approaches are proposed for quantifying the importance of predator-prey interactions in the regulation of food webs and their structure, dynamics, and resistance to species loss and invasion.
References
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Book
Model Selection and Multimodel Inference: A Practical Information-Theoretic Approach
TL;DR: The second edition of this book is unique in that it focuses on methods for making formal statistical inference from all the models in an a priori set (Multi-Model Inference).
Journal ArticleDOI
Toward a metabolic theory of ecology
James H. Brown,James H. Brown,James F. Gillooly,Andrew P. Allen,Van M. Savage,Van M. Savage,Geoffrey B. West,Geoffrey B. West +7 more
TL;DR: This work has developed a quantitative theory for how metabolic rate varies with body size and temperature, and predicts how metabolic theory predicts how this rate controls ecological processes at all levels of organization from individuals to the biosphere.
Book
Model selection and multimodel inference
TL;DR: The first € price and the £ and $ price are net prices, subject to local VAT, and the €(D) includes 7% for Germany, the€(A) includes 10% for Austria.
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The Geographic Mosaic of Coevolution
TL;DR: Picking up where his influential The Coevolutionary Process left off, John N. Thompson synthesizes the state of a rapidly developing science that integrates approaches from evolutionary ecology, population genetics, phylogeography, systematics, evolutionary biochemistry and physiology, and molecular biology.
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Ecological Niches: Linking Classical and Contemporary Approaches
TL;DR: Jonathan M. Chase and Mathew A. Leibold argue that the niche is an ideal tool with which to unify disparate research and theoretical approaches in contemporary ecology and develop a framework for understanding niches that is flexible enough to include a variety of small- and large-scale processes.