Generalists are more specialized in low-resource habitats, increasing stability of ecological network structure.

ABSTRACT: Linking mechanistic processes to the stability of ecological networks is a key frontier in ecology. In trophic networks, "modules"-groups of species that interact more with each other than with other members of the community-confer stability, mitigating effects of species loss or perturbation. Modularity, in turn, is shaped by the interplay between species' diet breadth traits and environmental influences, which together dictate interaction structure. Despite the importance of network modularity, variation in this emergent property is poorly understood in complex natural systems. Using two years of field data, we quantified interactions between a rich community of lepidopteran herbivores and their host plants across a mosaic of low-resource serpentine and high-resource nonserpentine soils.

SUBMITTER: Robinson ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6994985 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature