Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, CSIC-UIB), C/Miquel Marquès 21, Esporles, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain.
PLoS One. 2011 May 11;6(5):e19637. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019637.
Recent research on ecological networks suggests that mutualistic networks are more nested than antagonistic ones and, as a result, they are more robust against chains of extinctions caused by disturbances. We evaluate whether mutualistic networks are more nested than comensalistic and antagonistic networks, and whether highly nested, host-epiphyte comensalistic networks fit the prediction of high robustness against disturbance. A review of 59 networks including mutualistic, antagonistic and comensalistic relationships showed that comensalistic networks are significantly more nested than antagonistic and mutualistic networks, which did not differ between themselves. Epiphyte-host networks from old-growth forests differed from those from disturbed forest in several topological parameters based on both qualitative and quantitative matrices. Network robustness increased with network size, but the slope of this relationship varied with nestedness and connectance. Our results indicate that interaction networks show complex responses to disturbances, which influence their topology and indirectly affect their robustness against species extinctions.
最近关于生态网络的研究表明，互利共生网络比敌对网络更嵌套，因此它们更能抵御由干扰引起的灭绝链。我们评估互利共生网络是否比共栖和敌对网络更嵌套，以及高度嵌套的宿主-附生共栖网络是否符合对干扰具有高弹性的预测。对包括互利共生、敌对和共栖关系在内的 59 个网络的综述表明，共栖网络明显比敌对和互利共生网络嵌套更多，而这两者之间没有差异。基于定性和定量矩阵，来自老龄森林的附生植物-宿主网络与来自受干扰森林的网络在几个拓扑参数上存在差异。网络弹性随网络大小的增加而增加，但这种关系的斜率随嵌套度和连接度而变化。我们的结果表明，相互作用网络对干扰表现出复杂的反应，这些反应影响它们的拓扑结构，并间接影响它们对物种灭绝的弹性。
