Ecological Networks
- LAST REVIEWED: 16 March 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 June 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0091
- LAST REVIEWED: 16 March 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 25 June 2013
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0091
Introduction
In any given ecological community individuals of hundreds of different species interact in multiple ways, forming networks of interacting species. A network is defined by a set of elements connected by links between some of the elements. An ecological network is a network in which the elements are often species and the links represent ecological interactions. Until the end of the 1990s, most of the studies on ecological networks focused on food webs, the trophic interactions between species within an ecological community. Nowadays, the notion that a variety of ecological interactions form networks of species—from predation to mutualism, from parasitism to competition—has become more pervasive. The structure of these ecological networks may provide information on the ecological and evolutionary processes generating and shaping biodiversity. Moreover, the structure of ecological networks may also tell us about the fragility of ecological communities to different kinds of perturbations, from species extinctions to the invasion of alien species, from climate change to the poaching of keystone species. The perception that species form networks of interacting species is not new, and the study of ecological networks cannot be separated from some of the long-lasting, unsolved questions in ecology and evolution. Examples of these questions are: Are static representations of feeding interactions useful to infer ecological dynamics? What is the relationship between complexity and stability of ecological communities? Are assemblages of interacting species coevolving in specific ways? Analysis of the network structure has suggested that we can infer about ecological organization using information on feeding interactions (see Pattern Description and Biological Correlates), challenged the long-lasting view that complex communities are intrinsically more stable (see Ecological Dynamics), and provided insights on how to understand the evolution and coevolution of large interacting assemblages of species (see Evolutionary Dynamics). The field of ecological networks blossomed in the turn of the 21st century, fueled by the appearance of large databases, the development of new approaches and tools, and the finding that disparate complex systems such as human societies, biochemical pathways, ecological interactions, and the Internet share similar network organization. This bibliography focuses on the study of networks formed by ecological interactions among individuals of different species. The suggested readings explore different aspects of this topic, including references on networks studied in other scientific fields, classical works on ecological networks, descriptions of main types of ecological networks, studies exploring the underlying processes shaping ecological networks, and the evolutionary, ecological, and conservationist consequences of the network organization of species interactions. The term ecological networks has been used to describe not only the organization of multispecies assemblages, but also the spatial networks formed by natural habitats and/or reserves connected by migration. This review focuses on the networks formed by species interactions.
Foundational Works
The study of ecological networks is deeply rooted in some of the long-lasting questions in ecological science. To represent feeding interactions among species as webs or networks is not new, as seen in Pascual and Dunne 2006 (cited under Types of Ecological Networks), and the perception that ecological interactions connect species directly or indirectly led to the definition of the term food chain, introduced in Elton 2001. The view that ecological communities are formed by interacting assemblages of species led to studies on the role of different species in organizing biological diversity. Empirical manipulations of a particular species, as in Paine 1966, illustrated the importance of patterns of interaction in shaping biodiversity and the remarkable role that species such as top predators can have in shaping this organization. At the same time, the study of how energy and mass flow across the elements of the ecosystems in Odum 1960 and the search for generalizations on the structure and dynamics of ecological systems in Margalef 1963 pointed out the importance of these patterns of interaction for ecological dynamics and community stability. Cohen 1978 shows how the use of mathematical tools led to a quantitative characterization of the organization of ecological communities. Moreover, the analysis of community matrices depicting the effects of each species on populations of interacting species led to the complexity–stability debate; the view that stability is an inherent property of diverse ecological communities is challenged in May 2001. An additional major advance was the realization that simple assembly models derived from random graph theory were able to reproduce the organization of food webs, which are the networks describing trophic interactions among species, as reviewed in Pimm 2002. The seminal paper Jordano 1987 generalized ideas first used for characterizing food webs to mutualisms, anticipating the exploration of the network structure of different kinds of species interactions (see Types of Ecological Networks). All these studies illustrate the previous work that, together with the explosion of complex network theory (see Fundamentals of Networks) and the development of computational approaches allowing us to handle large datasets, allowed the emergence of the field of ecological networks at the turn of 21st century.
Cohen, Joel E. 1978. Food webs and niche space. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
The main elements of current ecological network analysis are present in this foundational book, including the aim to contribute to a central question in ecology (how many dimensions are needed to characterize food webs?), the compilation of a large database of empirical networks, the use of graph theory concepts such as intervality to characterize empirical networks, and the conclusion that similar patterns occur in several disparate ecological communities.
Elton, Charles S. 2001. Animal ecology. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
This book introduces the idea of food chains together with the idea that food chains can be combined in food cycles, now called food webs. This reprint includes new introductions for the chapters, describing the influence of Elton’s work. It is a classic book in ecology and still a source of inspiration for the subject. Originally published in 1927.
Jordano, Pedro. 1987. Patterns of mutualistic interactions in pollination and seed dispersal: Connectance, dependence asymmetries, and coevolution. American Naturalist 129:657–677.
DOI: 10.1086/284665
This paper explores the structure of assemblages of plants and their mutualistic partners (seed dispersers and pollinators). It uses the concepts of connectance and asymmetries to characterize the organization of mutualistic assemblages, anticipating the debate on the role of abundance and coevolution in shaping mutualistic networks.
Margalef, Ramón. 1963. On certain unifying principles in ecology. American Naturalist 97.897: 357–374.
DOI: 10.1086/282286
This classic paper illustrates the long-lasting search for general principles in ecology. Margalef explores the relationships among the complexity of ecosystems, energy flow, perturbations, and the maintenance of complex organization in space and, especially, in time. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
May, Robert M. 2001. Stability and complexity in model ecosystems. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.
This book challenged the long-lasting view that stability is a natural consequence of complexity, firing up the complexity–stability debate. Originally published in 1973, this work popularized the qualitative stability analysis in the ecological literature, one of the most often used ways of exploring the stability of ecological networks.
Odum, Howard T. 1960. Ecological potential and analogue circuits for the ecosystem. American Scientist 48.1: 1–8.
This article is a key paper on the idea that ecosystem dynamics can be modeled using approaches derived from physics. The study is based on the analogies between mass and energy flow across the interactions connecting trophic levels with Ohm’s Law. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Paine, Robert T. 1966. Food web complexity and species diversity. American Naturalist 100.910: 65–75.
DOI: 10.1086/282400
This article describes one of the central results of empirical experiments in ecology. It illustrates how the removal of a top predator—a starfish—led to a reduction in the diversity within food webs due the releasing of top-down control imposed by starfish on their prey. Available online for purchase or by subscription.
Pimm, Stuart L. 2002. Food webs. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.
This book is a well-organized and clear review of the main findings of empirical and theoretical studies on food webs prior to the 1980s. It is a wonderful introduction and summary for researchers interested in how the network approach would allow the characterization of interacting assemblages. Originally published in 1982 (London: Chapman and Hall).
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Article
- Abundance/Biomass Comparison Method
- Accounting for Ecological Capital
- Adaptive Radiation
- Agroecology
- Allelopathy
- Allocation of Reproductive Resources in Plants
- Animals, Functional Morphology of
- Animals, Reproductive Allocation in
- Animals, Thermoregulation in
- Antarctic Environments and Ecology
- Anthropocentrism
- Applied Ecology
- Approaches and Issues in Historical Ecology
- Aquatic Conservation
- Aquatic Nutrient Cycling
- Archaea, Ecology of
- Assembly Models
- Autecology
- Bacterial Diversity in Freshwater
- Benthic Ecology
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
- Biodiversity, Dimensionality of
- Biodiversity, Marine
- Biodiversity Patterns in Agricultural Systms
- Biofuels
- Biogeochemistry
- Biological Chaos and Complex Dynamics
- Biological Rhythms
- Biome, Alpine
- Biome, Boreal
- Biome, Desert
- Biome, Grassland
- Biome, Savanna
- Biome, Tundra
- Biomes, African
- Biomes, East Asian
- Biomes, Mountain
- Biomes, North American
- Biomes, South Asian
- Biophilia
- Braun, E. Lucy
- Bryophyte Ecology
- Buell-Small Succession Study (New Jersey)
- Butterfly Ecology
- Carson, Rachel
- Chemical Ecology
- Classification Analysis
- Coastal Dune Habitats
- Coevolution
- Communicating Ecology
- Communities and Ecosystems, Indirect Effects in
- Communities, Top-Down and Bottom-Up Regulation of
- Community Concept, The
- Community Ecology
- Community Genetics
- Community Phenology
- Competition and Coexistence in Animal Communities
- Competition in Plant Communities
- Complexity Theory
- Conservation Biology
- Conservation Genetics
- Coral Reefs
- Darwin, Charles
- Dead Wood in Forest Ecosystems
- Decomposition
- De-Glaciation, Ecology of
- Dendroecology
- Disease Ecology
- Dispersal
- Drought as a Disturbance in Forests
- Early Explorers, The
- Earth’s Climate, The
- Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics
- Ecological Dynamics in Fragmented Landscapes
- Ecological Education
- Ecological Engineering
- Ecological Forecasting
- Ecological Informatics
- Ecological Relevance of Speciation
- Ecology, Introductory Sources in
- Ecology, Microbial (Community)
- Ecology of Emerging Zoonotic Viruses
- Ecology of the Atlantic Forest
- Ecology, Stochastic Processes in
- Ecosystem Ecology
- Ecosystem Engineers
- Ecosystem Multifunctionality
- Ecosystem Services
- Ecosystem Services, Conservation of
- Ecotourism
- Elton, Charles
- Endophytes, Fungal
- Energy Flow
- Environmental Anthropology
- Environmental Justice
- Environments, Extreme
- Ethics, Ecological
- European Natural History Tradition
- Evolutionarily Stable Strategies
- Facilitation and the Organization of Communities
- Fern and Lycophyte Ecology
- Fire Ecology
- Fishes, Climate Change Effects on
- Flood Ecology
- Food Webs
- Foraging Behavior, Implications of
- Foraging, Optimal
- Forests, Temperate Coniferous
- Forests, Temperate Deciduous
- Freshwater Invertebrate Ecology
- Genetic Considerations in Plant Ecological Restoration
- Genomics, Ecological
- Geoecology
- Geographic Range
- Gleason, Henry
- Grazer Ecology
- Greig-Smith, Peter
- Gymnosperm Ecology
- Habitat Selection
- Harper, John L.
- Harvesting Alternative Water Resources (US West)
- Heavy Metal Tolerance
- Heterogeneity
- Himalaya, Ecology of the
- Host-Parasitoid Interactions
- Human Ecology
- Human Ecology of the Andes
- Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence
- Hutchinson, G. Evelyn
- Indigenous Ecologies
- Industrial Ecology
- Insect Ecology, Terrestrial
- Invasive Species
- Island Biogeography Theory
- Island Biology
- Keystone Species
- Kin Selection
- Landscape Dynamics
- Landscape Ecology
- Laws, Ecological
- Legume-Rhizobium Symbiosis, The
- Leopold, Aldo
- Lichen Ecology
- Life History
- Limnology
- Literature, Ecology and
- MacArthur, Robert H.
- Mangrove Zone Ecology
- Marine Fisheries Management
- Marine Subsidies
- Mass Effects
- Mathematical Ecology
- Mating Systems
- Maximum Sustainable Yield
- Metabolic Scaling Theory
- Metacommunity Dynamics
- Metapopulations and Spatial Population Processes
- Microclimate Ecology
- Mimicry
- Movement Ecology, Modeling and Data Analysis in
- Multiple Stable States and Catastrophic Shifts in Ecosyste...
- Mutualisms and Symbioses
- Mycorrhizal Ecology
- Natural History Tradition, The
- Networks, Ecological
- Niche Versus Neutral Models of Community Organization
- Niches
- Nutrient Foraging in Plants
- Ocean Sprawl
- Oceanography, Microbial
- Odum, Eugene and Howard
- Old Fields
- Ordination Analysis
- Organic Agriculture, Ecology of
- Paleoecology
- Paleolimnology
- Parental Care, Evolution of
- Pastures and Pastoralism
- Patch Dynamics
- Patrick, Ruth
- Peatlands
- Phenotypic Plasticity
- Phenotypic Selection
- Philosophy, Ecological
- Phylogenetics and Comparative Methods
- Physics, Ecology and
- Physiological Ecology of Nutrient Acquisition in Animals
- Physiological Ecology of Photosynthesis
- Physiological Ecology of Water Balance in Terrestrial Anim...
- Physiological Ecology of Water Balance in Terrestrial Plan...
- Plant Blindness
- Plant Disease Epidemiology
- Plant Ecological Responses to Extreme Climatic Events
- Plant-Insect Interactions
- Polar Regions
- Pollination Ecology
- Population Dynamics, Density-Dependence and Single-Species
- Population Dynamics, Methods in
- Population Ecology, Animal
- Population Ecology, Plant
- Population Fluctuations and Cycles
- Population Genetics
- Population Viability Analysis
- Populations and Communities, Dynamics of Age- and Stage-St...
- Predation and Community Organization
- Predation, Sublethal
- Predator-Prey Interactions
- Radioecology
- Reductionism Versus Holism
- Religion and Ecology
- Remote Sensing
- Restoration Ecology
- Rewilding
- Ricketts, Edward Flanders Robb
- Sclerochronology
- Secondary Production
- Seed Ecology
- Senescence
- Serpentine Soils
- Shelford, Victor
- Simulation Modeling
- Socioecology
- Soil Biogeochemistry
- Soil Ecology
- Spatial Pattern Analysis
- Spatial Patterns of Species Biodiversity in Terrestrial En...
- Spatial Scale and Biodiversity
- Species Distribution Modeling
- Species Extinctions
- Species Responses to Climate Change
- Species-Area Relationships
- Stability and Ecosystem Resilience, A Below-Ground Perspec...
- Stoichiometry, Ecological
- Stream Ecology
- Succession
- Sustainable Development
- Systematic Conservation Planning
- Systems Ecology
- Tansley, Sir Arthur
- Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycle
- Terrestrial Resource Limitation
- Territoriality
- Theory and Practice of Biological Control
- Thermal Ecology of Animals
- Tragedy of the Commons
- Transient Dynamics
- Trophic Levels
- Tropical Humid Forest Biome
- Urban Ecology
- Urban Forest Ecology
- Vegetation Classification
- Vegetation Dynamics, Remote Sensing of
- Vegetation Mapping
- Vicariance Biogeography
- Weed Ecology
- Wetland Ecology
- Whittaker, Robert H.
- Wildlife Ecology