Papers

Within an ecosystem, species interact with each other in many different ways, including predation, competition, and facilitation, and this can be modelled as a network of multiple interaction types. The variety of interaction types that link species to each other has long been recognized but has rarely been synthesized for entire multi-species ecosystems. Here, we leverage a unique marine ecological network that integrates thousands of trophic and non-trophic interactions. We show that, despite its multidimensional complexity, this ecological network collapses into a small set of “functional groups,” i.e., groups of species that resemble each other in the way they interact with others in their combined trophic and non-trophic interactions. These groups are taxonomically coherent and predictable by species attributes. Moreover, dynamic simulations suggest that the way the different interaction types relate to each other allows for higher species persistence and higher total biomass than is expected by chance alone, and that this tends to promote a higher robustness to extinctions. Our results will help to guide future empirical studies and to develop a more general theory of the dynamics of complex ecological systems.

Kéfi S, Miele V, Wieters EA, Navarrete SA, Berlow EL (2016) How Structured Is the Entangled Bank? The Surprisingly Simple Organization of Multiplex Ecological Networks Leads to Increased Persistence and Resilience. PLoS Biol 14(8): e1002527. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1002527