The structure and robustness of ecological networks with two interaction types.

ABSTRACT: Until recently, most ecological network analyses investigating the effects of species' declines and extinctions have focused on a single type of interaction (e.g. feeding). In nature, however, diverse interactions co-occur, each of them forming a layer of a 'multilayer' network. Data including information on multiple interaction types has recently started to emerge, giving us the opportunity to have a first glance at possible commonalities in the structure of these networks. We studied the structural features of 44 tripartite ecological networks from the literature, each composed of two layers of interactions (e.g. herbivory and pollination), and investigated their robustness to species losses. Considering two interactions simultaneously, we found that the robustness of the whole community

SUBMITTER: Dominguez-Garcia V 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10830016 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature