Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, 8140 Christchurch, New Zealand.
Department of Zoology, University of Otago, 340 Great King Street, 9054 Dunedin, New Zealand.
Trends Parasitol. 2021 May;37(5):445-455. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2021.01.005. Epub 2021 Feb 5.
Biological interactions are key drivers of ecological and evolutionary processes. The complexity of such interactions hinders our understanding of ecological systems and our ability to make effective predictions in changing environments. However, network analysis allows us to better tackle the complexity of ecosystems because it extracts the properties of an ecological system according to the number and distribution of links among interacting entities. The number of studies using network analysis to solve ecological and evolutionary questions in parasitology has increased over the past decade. Here, we synthesise the contribution of network analysis toward disentangling host-parasite processes. Furthermore, we identify current trends in mainstream ecology and novel applications of network analysis that present opportunities for research on host-parasite interactions.
生物相互作用是生态和进化过程的关键驱动因素。这种相互作用的复杂性阻碍了我们对生态系统的理解，也影响了我们在不断变化的环境中做出有效预测的能力。然而，网络分析使我们能够更好地解决生态系统的复杂性，因为它根据相互作用实体之间的链接数量和分布来提取生态系统的属性。过去十年中，利用网络分析来解决寄生虫学中的生态和进化问题的研究有所增加。在这里，我们综合了网络分析在阐明宿主-寄生虫过程方面的贡献。此外，我们确定了主流生态学中的当前趋势和网络分析的新应用，这些为宿主-寄生虫相互作用的研究提供了机会。
