Interaction strength promotes robustness against cascading effects in mutualistic networks.

ABSTRACT: Perturbations, such as fluctuations in abundance, can ripple across species assemblages through ecological interactions. Furthermore, the way in which ecological interactions are organized into a network and the interaction strengths connecting species may be important for cascading effects. Previous work revealed that network structure determines how cascading effects spread across species assemblages. A next step is to understand how interaction strengths influence cascading effects. Here, we assume that perturbations have negative effects, and we evaluate whether interaction strength affects network robustness to cascading effects in mutualistic interactions, and examine the role of network structure in mediating perturbation cascades when interaction strength is incorporated. We combin

SUBMITTER: Gaiarsa MP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6345762 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature