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Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores

Social information networks have the potential to shape the spatial structure of ecological communities by promoting the formation of mixed‐species groups. However, what actually drives social affinity between species in the wild will depend on the characteristics of the species available to group....

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Autores principales: Meise, Kristine, Franks, Daniel W., Bro‐Jørgensen, Jakob
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6973068/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31775182
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13432
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author Meise, Kristine
Franks, Daniel W.
Bro‐Jørgensen, Jakob
author_facet Meise, Kristine
Franks, Daniel W.
Bro‐Jørgensen, Jakob
author_sort Meise, Kristine
collection PubMed
description Social information networks have the potential to shape the spatial structure of ecological communities by promoting the formation of mixed‐species groups. However, what actually drives social affinity between species in the wild will depend on the characteristics of the species available to group. Here we first present an agent‐based model that predicts trait‐related survival benefits from mixed‐species group formation in a multi‐species community and we then test the model predictions in a community‐wide field study of African savannah herbivores using multi‐layered network analysis. We reveal benefits from information transfer about predators as a key determinant of mixed‐species group formation, and that dilution benefits alone are not enough to explain patterns in interspecific sociality. The findings highlight the limitations of classical ecological approaches focusing only on direct trophic interactions when analysing community structure and suggest that declines in species occupying central social network positions, such as key informants, can have significant repercussions throughout communities.
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spelling pubmed-69730682020-01-27 Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores Meise, Kristine Franks, Daniel W. Bro‐Jørgensen, Jakob Ecol Lett Letters Social information networks have the potential to shape the spatial structure of ecological communities by promoting the formation of mixed‐species groups. However, what actually drives social affinity between species in the wild will depend on the characteristics of the species available to group. Here we first present an agent‐based model that predicts trait‐related survival benefits from mixed‐species group formation in a multi‐species community and we then test the model predictions in a community‐wide field study of African savannah herbivores using multi‐layered network analysis. We reveal benefits from information transfer about predators as a key determinant of mixed‐species group formation, and that dilution benefits alone are not enough to explain patterns in interspecific sociality. The findings highlight the limitations of classical ecological approaches focusing only on direct trophic interactions when analysing community structure and suggest that declines in species occupying central social network positions, such as key informants, can have significant repercussions throughout communities. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2019-11-27 2020-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6973068/ /pubmed/31775182 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13432 Text en © 2019 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Letters
Meise, Kristine
Franks, Daniel W.
Bro‐Jørgensen, Jakob
Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores
title Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores
title_full Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores
title_fullStr Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores
title_full_unstemmed Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores
title_short Alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in African savannah herbivores
title_sort alarm communication networks as a driver of community structure in african savannah herbivores
topic Letters
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6973068/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31775182
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.13432
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