Species abundance and asymmetric interaction strength in ecological networks
Bryn Mawr College · Ben-Gurion University of the Negev · +5 more institutions
Abstract
The strength of interactions among species in a network tends to be highly asymmetric. We evaluate the hypothesis that this asymmetry results from the distribution of abundance among species, so that species interactions occur randomly among individuals. We used a database on mutualistic and antagonistic bipartite quantitative interaction networks. We show that across all types of networks asymmetry was correlated with abundance, so that rare species were asymmetrically affected by their abundant partners, while pairs of interacting abundant species tended to exhibit more symmetric, reciprocally strong effects. A null model shows that abundance provides a sufficient explanation of the asymmetry structure in…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 35.56
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 63
Authors
6- DPDiego P. VázquezCorresponding
Bryn Mawr College, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, University of Würzburg, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Centro Científico Tecnológico - Mendoza, University of Otago
- CJCarlos J. Melián
- NMNeal M. Williams
Bryn Mawr College, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, University of Würzburg, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Centro Científico Tecnológico - Mendoza, University of Otago
- NBNico Blüthgen
Bryn Mawr College, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, University of Würzburg, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Centro Científico Tecnológico - Mendoza, University of Otago
- BRBoris R. Krasnov
Bryn Mawr College, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, University of Würzburg, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, Centro Científico Tecnológico - Mendoza, University of Otago
Topics & keywords
- Null model
- Abundance (ecology)
- Ecological network
- Biology
- Ecology
- Asymmetry
- Evolutionary biology
- Null (SQL)
- Life in Land