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
The impact of intraspecific variation on food web structure
TL;DR: It is shown that making life stage variation explicit in food webs results in larger food webs that possess consistent structural changes that are separate from the changes in structure that come simply from increasing the number of nodes in the webs.
Journal ArticleDOI
Strength of niche processes for species interactions is lower for generalists and exotic species.
Guadalupe Peralta,George L. W. Perry,Diego P. Vázquez,Diego P. Vázquez,D. Matthias Dehling,Jason M. Tylianakis +5 more
TL;DR: Observed changes in the strength of niche processes in generating species interactions, after accounting for effects of neutral processes, could improve predictions of ecological networks from species trait data.
Journal ArticleDOI
Functional Equivalence in Seed Dispersal Effectiveness of Podocarpus parlatorei in Andean Fruit-Eating Bird Assemblages
TL;DR: In the replacement of functional equivalent species, the outcomes of the interactions are strongly affected by disperser abundance and habitat use, at the expense of dispersers' trait redundancy on plant population dynamics and community structure.
Journal ArticleDOI
Degree of intervality of food webs: from body-size data to models.
TL;DR: This model finds that diet contiguity not only can be high, but must be high when species are ranked in ascending order of body size, which is particularly true when one takes species' body size as a proxy for niche value.
Journal ArticleDOI
From theory to experimental design-Quantifying a trait-based theory of predator-prey dynamics.
Amanda N. Laubmeier,Kate Wootton,John E. Banks,Riccardo Bommarco,Alva Curtsdotter,Tomas Jonsson,Tomas Roslin,Harvey Thomas Banks +7 more
TL;DR: This “pre-experimental” exercise aimed at improving the links between hypothesis formulation, model construction, experimental design and data collection, hasten to publish the findings before analyzing data from the actual experiment, thus setting the stage for strong inference.
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.
Book
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.