The dimensionality of ecological networks

Anna Eklöf; Ute Jacob; Jason Kopp; Jordi Bosch; Rocío Castro-Urgal; Natacha P. Chacoff; Bo Dalsgaard; Claudio de  Sassi; Mauro Galetti; Paulo R. Guimarães; Silvia Beatriz Lomáscolo; Ana M. Martín González; Marco Aurelio Pizo; Romina Rader; Anselm Rodrigo; Jason M. Tylianakis; Diego P. Vázquez; Stefano Allesina

doi:10.1111/ele.12081

The dimensionality of ecological networks

Anna Eklöf, Ute Jacob, Jason Kopp, Jordi Bosch, Rocío Castro-Urgal, Natacha P. Chacoff, Bo Dalsgaard, Claudio de Sassi, Mauro Galetti, Paulo R. Guimarães, Silvia Beatriz Lomáscolo, Ana M. Martín González, Marco Aurelio Pizo, Romina Rader, Anselm Rodrigo, Jason M. Tylianakis, Diego P. Vázquez, Stefano Allesina

Ecology and Evolution

170 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original language	English
Journal	Ecology Letters
Volume	16
Issue number	5
Pages (from-to)	577-583
Number of pages	7
ISSN	1461-023X
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12081
Publication status	Published - May 2013

Access to Document

10.1111/ele.12081

Cite this

Eklöf, A., Jacob, U., Kopp, J., Bosch, J., Castro-Urgal, R., Chacoff, N. P., Dalsgaard, B., Sassi, C. D., Galetti, M., Guimarães, P. R., Lomáscolo, S. B., González, A. M. M., Pizo, M. A., Rader, R., Rodrigo, A., Tylianakis, J. M., Vázquez, D. P., & Allesina, S. (2013). The dimensionality of ecological networks. Ecology Letters, 16(5), 577-583. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12081

@article{98d638b0f831478088722f6e1c1ae6c3,

title = "The dimensionality of ecological networks",

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.",

author = "Anna Ekl{\"o}f and Ute Jacob and Jason Kopp and Jordi Bosch and Roc{\'i}o Castro-Urgal and Chacoff, {Natacha P.} and Bo Dalsgaard and Sassi, {Claudio de} and Mauro Galetti and Guimar{\~a}es, {Paulo R.} and Lom{\'a}scolo, {Silvia Beatriz} and Gonz{\'a}lez, {Ana M. Mart{\'i}n} and Pizo, {Marco Aurelio} and Romina Rader and Anselm Rodrigo and Tylianakis, {Jason M.} and V{\'a}zquez, {Diego P.} and Stefano Allesina",

year = "2013",

month = may,

doi = "10.1111/ele.12081",

language = "English",

volume = "16",

pages = "577--583",

journal = "Ecology Letters",

issn = "1461-023X",

publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",

number = "5",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - The dimensionality of ecological networks

AU - Eklöf, Anna

AU - Jacob, Ute

AU - Kopp, Jason

AU - Bosch, Jordi

AU - Castro-Urgal, Rocío

AU - Chacoff, Natacha P.

AU - Dalsgaard, Bo

AU - Sassi, Claudio de

AU - Galetti, Mauro

AU - Guimarães, Paulo R.

AU - Lomáscolo, Silvia Beatriz

AU - González, Ana M. Martín

AU - Pizo, Marco Aurelio

AU - Rader, Romina

AU - Rodrigo, Anselm

AU - Tylianakis, Jason M.

AU - Vázquez, Diego P.

AU - Allesina, Stefano

PY - 2013/5

Y1 - 2013/5

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

U2 - 10.1111/ele.12081

DO - 10.1111/ele.12081

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84876713348

SN - 1461-023X

VL - 16

SP - 577

EP - 583

JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

IS - 5

ER -

The dimensionality of ecological networks

Abstract

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Cite this