Abstract
BackgroundSimple models inspired by processes shaping consumer-resource interactions have helped to establish the primary processes underlying the organization of food webs, networks of trophic interactions among species. Because other ecological interactions such as mutualisms between plants and their pollinators and seed dispersers are inherently based in consumer-resource relationships we hypothesize that processes shaping food webs should organize mutualistic relationships as well.Methodology/Principal FindingsWe used a likelihood-based model selection approach to compare the performance of food web models and that of a model designed for mutualisms, in reproducing the structure of networks depicting mutualistic relationships. Our results show that these food web models are able to reproduce the structure of most of the mutualistic networks and even the simplest among the food web models, the cascade model, often reproduce overall structural properties of real mutualistic networks.Conclusions/SignificanceBased on our results we hypothesize that processes leading to feeding hierarchy, which is a characteristic shared by all food web models, might be a fundamental aspect in the assembly of mutualisms. These findings suggest that similar underlying ecological processes might be important in organizing different types of interactions.
Highlights
A major challenge in ecology is to understand how ecological networks are assembled
Because our focus is to build a bridge between models describing antagonistic and mutualistic relationships, we chose to compare food web model performance with that of a recent proposed model that was directly inspired by food web models and has been shown to successfully reproduce the structure of mutualistic networks [15]
Our results show that all four models performed fairly well in reproducing the properties of empirical mutualistic networks
Summary
A major challenge in ecology is to understand how ecological networks are assembled. Network assembly reflects how interactions between individuals of different species scale up to organize ecological communities [1,2]. The study of food webs, which are networks of trophic interactions among species, has benefited from the proposal of probabilistic, topological models that are able to reproduce the structure of trophic interactions by incorporating simple ecological processes (reviewed by Stouffer [3]). These models offer a way to build realistic food webs using a few parameters such as the number of interacting species and the number of interactions that can be estimated in the field [4,5,6,7]. Because other ecological interactions such as mutualisms between plants and their pollinators and seed dispersers are inherently based in consumer-resource relationships we hypothesize that processes shaping food webs should organize mutualistic relationships as well
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
