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Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks
Interaction networks are central elements of ecological systems and have very complex structures. Historically, much effort has focused on niche-mediated processes to explain these structures, while an emerging consensus posits that both niche and neutral mechanisms simultaneously shape many feature...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416803/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22899987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038295 |
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author | Canard, Elsa Mouquet, Nicolas Marescot, Lucile Gaston, Kevin J. Gravel, Dominique Mouillot, David |
author_facet | Canard, Elsa Mouquet, Nicolas Marescot, Lucile Gaston, Kevin J. Gravel, Dominique Mouillot, David |
author_sort | Canard, Elsa |
collection | PubMed |
description | Interaction networks are central elements of ecological systems and have very complex structures. Historically, much effort has focused on niche-mediated processes to explain these structures, while an emerging consensus posits that both niche and neutral mechanisms simultaneously shape many features of ecological communities. However, the study of interaction networks still lacks a comprehensive neutral theory. Here we present a neutral model of predator-prey interactions and analyze the structural characteristics of the simulated networks. We find that connectance values (complexity) and complexity-diversity relationships of neutral networks are close to those observed in empirical bipartite networks. High nestedness and low modularity values observed in neutral networks fall in the range of those from empirical antagonist bipartite networks. Our results suggest that, as an alternative to niche-mediated processes that induce incompatibility between species (“niche forbidden links”), neutral processes create “neutral forbidden links” due to uneven species abundance distributions and the low probability of interaction between rare species. Neutral trophic networks must be seen as the missing endpoint of a continuum from niche to purely stochastic approaches of community organization. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3416803 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-34168032012-08-16 Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks Canard, Elsa Mouquet, Nicolas Marescot, Lucile Gaston, Kevin J. Gravel, Dominique Mouillot, David PLoS One Research Article Interaction networks are central elements of ecological systems and have very complex structures. Historically, much effort has focused on niche-mediated processes to explain these structures, while an emerging consensus posits that both niche and neutral mechanisms simultaneously shape many features of ecological communities. However, the study of interaction networks still lacks a comprehensive neutral theory. Here we present a neutral model of predator-prey interactions and analyze the structural characteristics of the simulated networks. We find that connectance values (complexity) and complexity-diversity relationships of neutral networks are close to those observed in empirical bipartite networks. High nestedness and low modularity values observed in neutral networks fall in the range of those from empirical antagonist bipartite networks. Our results suggest that, as an alternative to niche-mediated processes that induce incompatibility between species (“niche forbidden links”), neutral processes create “neutral forbidden links” due to uneven species abundance distributions and the low probability of interaction between rare species. Neutral trophic networks must be seen as the missing endpoint of a continuum from niche to purely stochastic approaches of community organization. Public Library of Science 2012-08-10 /pmc/articles/PMC3416803/ /pubmed/22899987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038295 Text en © 2012 Canard et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Canard, Elsa Mouquet, Nicolas Marescot, Lucile Gaston, Kevin J. Gravel, Dominique Mouillot, David Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks |
title | Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks |
title_full | Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks |
title_fullStr | Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks |
title_full_unstemmed | Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks |
title_short | Emergence of Structural Patterns in Neutral Trophic Networks |
title_sort | emergence of structural patterns in neutral trophic networks |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3416803/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22899987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038295 |
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