Sint Daniela, Traugott Michael
Mountain Agriculture Research Unit, Institute of Ecology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
J Pest Sci (2004). 2016;89:1-5. doi: 10.1007/s10340-015-0686-7. Epub 2015 Aug 9.
Species are embedded in complex networks of ecological interactions and assessing these networks provides a powerful approach to understand what the consequences of these interactions are for ecosystem functioning and services. This is mandatory to develop and evaluate strategies for the management and control of pests. Graphical representations of networks can help recognize patterns that might be overlooked otherwise. However, there is a lack of software which allows visualizing these complex interaction networks. Food Web Designer is a stand-alone, highly flexible and user friendly software tool to quantitatively visualize trophic and other types of bipartite and tripartite interaction networks. It is offered free of charge for use on Microsoft Windows platforms. Food Web Designer is easy to use without the need to learn a specific syntax due to its graphical user interface. Up to three (trophic) levels can be connected using links cascading from or pointing towards the taxa within each level to illustrate top-down and bottom-up connections. Link width/strength and abundance of taxa can be quantified, allowing generating fully quantitative networks. Network datasets can be imported, saved for later adjustment and the interaction webs can be exported as pictures for graphical display in different file formats. We show how Food Web Designer can be used to draw predator-prey and host-parasitoid food webs, demonstrating that this software is a simple and straightforward tool to graphically display interaction networks for assessing pest control or any other type of interaction in both managed and natural ecosystems from an ecological network perspective.
物种嵌入在复杂的生态相互作用网络中，评估这些网络为理解这些相互作用对生态系统功能和服务的影响提供了一种强有力的方法。这对于制定和评估害虫管理与控制策略是必不可少的。网络的图形表示有助于识别那些否则可能被忽视的模式。然而，目前缺乏能够可视化这些复杂相互作用网络的软件。食物网设计器是一款独立的、高度灵活且用户友好的软件工具，用于定量可视化营养级以及其他类型的二分和三分相互作用网络。它在微软Windows平台上可免费使用。由于其图形用户界面，食物网设计器易于使用，无需学习特定的语法。最多可以使用从每个级别内的分类单元级联或指向这些分类单元的链接连接三个（营养）级别，以说明自上而下和自下而上的联系。链接宽度/强度和分类单元的丰度可以进行量化，从而生成完全定量的网络。可以导入网络数据集，保存以便后续调整，并且相互作用网可以导出为图片，以不同文件格式进行图形显示。我们展示了如何使用食物网设计器来绘制捕食者 - 猎物和寄主 - 寄生蜂食物网，证明该软件是一个简单直接的工具，可从生态网络角度以图形方式显示相互作用网络，用于评估害虫控制或管理和自然生态系统中任何其他类型的相互作用。
