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Galiana N, Arnoldi JF, Mestre F, Rozenfeld A, Araújo MB. Power laws in species' biotic interaction networks can be inferred from co-occurrence data. Nat Ecol Evol 2024; 8:209-217. [PMID: 38012361 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02254-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/17/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Inferring biotic interactions from species co-occurrence patterns has long intrigued ecologists. Yet recent research revealed that co-occurrences may not reliably represent pairwise biotic interactions. We propose that examining network-level co-occurrence patterns can provide valuable insights into community structure and assembly. Analysing ten bipartite networks of empirically sampled biotic interactions and associated species spatial distribution, we find that approximately 20% of co-occurrences correspond to actual interactions. Moreover, the degree distribution shifts from exponential in co-occurrence networks to power laws in networks of biotic interactions. This shift results from a strong interplay between species' biotic (their interacting partners) and abiotic (their environmental requirements) niches, and is accurately predicted by considering co-occurrence frequencies. Our work offers a mechanistic understanding of the assembly of ecological communities and suggests simple ways to infer fundamental biotic interaction network characteristics from co-occurrence data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nuria Galiana
- Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid, Spain.
| | - Jean-François Arnoldi
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Experimental and Theoretical Ecology Station, Moulis, France
| | - Frederico Mestre
- Rui Nabeiro Biodiversity Chair, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
| | - Alejandro Rozenfeld
- Rui Nabeiro Biodiversity Chair, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
- INTELYMEC Group, Centro de Investigaciones en Física e Ingeniería del Centro Centro de Investigaciones en Física e Ingeniería del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires - Universidad Nacional del Centro de la Provincia de Buenos Aires - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Olavarría, Argentina
| | - Miguel B Araújo
- Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural Sciences, Madrid, Spain
- Rui Nabeiro Biodiversity Chair, Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
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Zelnik YR, Galiana N, Barbier M, Loreau M, Galbraith E, Arnoldi JF. How collectively integrated are ecological communities? Ecol Lett 2024; 27:e14358. [PMID: 38288867 DOI: 10.1111/ele.14358] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/23/2023] [Revised: 11/22/2023] [Accepted: 11/26/2023] [Indexed: 02/01/2024]
Abstract
Beyond abiotic conditions, do population dynamics mostly depend on a species' direct predators, preys and conspecifics? Or can indirect feedback that ripples across the whole community be equally important? Determining where ecological communities sit on the spectrum between these two characterizations requires a metric able to capture the difference between them. Here we show that the spectral radius of a community's interaction matrix provides such a metric, thus a measure of ecological collectivity, which is accessible from imperfect knowledge of biotic interactions and related to observable signatures. This measure of collectivity integrates existing approaches to complexity, interaction structure and indirect interactions. Our work thus provides an original perspective on the question of to what degree communities are more than loose collections of species or simple interaction motifs and explains when pragmatic reductionist approaches ought to suffice or fail when applied to ecological communities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuval R Zelnik
- Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
- Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Nuria Galiana
- Department of Biogeography and Global Change, National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC), Madrid, Spain
| | - Matthieu Barbier
- CIRAD, UMR PHIM, Montpellier, France
- PHIM Plant Health Institute, University of Montpellier, CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Michel Loreau
- Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS Moulis, Moulis, France
- Institute of Ecology, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Eric Galbraith
- Department of Earth and Planetary Science, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA-UAB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
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Brose U, Blanchard JL, Eklöf A, Galiana N, Hartvig M, R Hirt M, Kalinkat G, Nordström MC, O'Gorman EJ, Rall BC, Schneider FD, Thébault E, Jacob U. Predicting the consequences of species loss using size-structured biodiversity approaches. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2016; 92:684-697. [PMID: 26756137 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 71] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2014] [Revised: 12/03/2015] [Accepted: 12/14/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Understanding the consequences of species loss in complex ecological communities is one of the great challenges in current biodiversity research. For a long time, this topic has been addressed by traditional biodiversity experiments. Most of these approaches treat species as trait-free, taxonomic units characterizing communities only by species number without accounting for species traits. However, extinctions do not occur at random as there is a clear correlation between extinction risk and species traits. In this review, we assume that large species will be most threatened by extinction and use novel allometric and size-spectrum concepts that include body mass as a primary species trait at the levels of populations and individuals, respectively, to re-assess three classic debates on the relationships between biodiversity and (i) food-web structural complexity, (ii) community dynamic stability, and (iii) ecosystem functioning. Contrasting current expectations, size-structured approaches suggest that the loss of large species, that typically exploit most resource species, may lead to future food webs that are less interwoven and more structured by chains of interactions and compartments. The disruption of natural body-mass distributions maintaining food-web stability may trigger avalanches of secondary extinctions and strong trophic cascades with expected knock-on effects on the functionality of the ecosystems. Therefore, we argue that it is crucial to take into account body size as a species trait when analysing the consequences of biodiversity loss for natural ecosystems. Applying size-structured approaches provides an integrative ecological concept that enables a better understanding of each species' unique role across communities and the causes and consequences of biodiversity loss.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ulrich Brose
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy, Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany
| | - Julia L Blanchard
- Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies and Centre for Marine Socioecology, University of Tasmania, 20 Castray Esplanade, Battery Point TAS 7004, Australia
| | - Anna Eklöf
- Theoretical Biology, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, SE-581 83, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Nuria Galiana
- Ecological Networks and Global Change Group, Experimental Ecology Station, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 09200, Moulis, France
| | - Martin Hartvig
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, DK-2100, Copenhagen, Denmark.,National Institute of Aquatic Resources, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2920, Charlottenlund, Denmark.,Systemic Conservation Biology Group, J.F. Blumenbach Institute of Zoology and Anthropology, Georg-August University of Göttingen, 37073, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Myriam R Hirt
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy, Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany
| | - Gregor Kalinkat
- Department of Biology and Ecology of Fishes, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, 12587, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Fish Ecology and Evolution, Eawag, 6047, Kastanienbaum, Switzerland
| | - Marie C Nordström
- Environmental and Marine Biology, Åbo Akademi University, FI-20520, Åbo, Finland
| | - Eoin J O'Gorman
- Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK
| | - Björn C Rall
- German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.,Faculty of Biology and Pharmacy, Institute of Ecology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07743, Jena, Germany
| | - Florian D Schneider
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution, Université Montpellier, CNRS, IRD, EPHE, CC065, 34095, Montpellier Cedex 05, France
| | - Elisa Thébault
- Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences - Paris, UMR 7618 (UPMC, CNRS, IRD, INRA, UPEC, Paris Diderot), Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 75005, Paris, France
| | - Ute Jacob
- Department of Biology, Institute for Hydrobiology and Fisheries Science, Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), KlimaCampus, University of Hamburg, 22767, Hamburg, Germany
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Abstract
BACKGROUND We herein present the initial experiences of the CEFER Institute of Reproduction in the formation of a new family model: two biological mothers, lesbians, one who provides the eggs and the other who carries the embryo in her womb. We have called this family model ROPA (Reception of Oocytes from PArtner). It is a pioneer event in Spain and among the first at a worldwide level. METHODS AND RESULTS Fourteen lesbian couples have undergone treatment using the ROPA technique. This paper briefly describes the technique. Six pregnancies have been obtained from 13 embryo transfers. There were two miscarriages and there are three ongoing pregnancies, one of them twins. One healthy female baby was born. The following aspects are addressed: (i) legal status of lesbian couples in Western countries; (ii) the lesbian couple's access to assisted reproduction techniques; (iii) ethical aspects; (iv) medical acceptability; and (v) single mother versus lesbian mothers. CONCLUSIONS In countries where the ROPA technique is legal, it offers lesbian couples a more favourable route, involving both partners, to start a family, and doctors who treat lesbian couples must be sensitive to this new family model.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Marina
- Institute of Reproduction CEFER, Member of ANACER, Marquesa de Vilallonga, 12. Desp 21, 08017 Barcelona, Spain.
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