Ecological, historical and evolutionary determinants of modularity in weighted seed‐dispersal networks

Modularity is a recurrent and important property of bipartite ecological networks. Although well‐resolved ecological networks describe interaction frequencies between species pairs, modularity of bipartite networks has been analysed only on the basis of binary presence–absence data. We employ a new...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology letters 2014-04, Vol.17 (4), p.454-463
Main Authors: Schleuning, Matthias, Ingmann, Lili, Strauß, Rouven, Fritz, Susanne A, Dalsgaard, Bo, Matthias Dehling, D, Plein, Michaela, Saavedra, Francisco, Sandel, Brody, Svenning, Jens‐Christian, Böhning‐Gaese, Katrin, Dormann, Carsten F, Gomez, Jose
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
algorithms
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Animals
Aves
Avian seed dispersal
Behavior, Animal - physiology
Biological and medical sciences
birds
Birds - physiology
Climate
current and past climate
Dispersal
ecological networks
Ecology
Ecosystem
environmental impact
Evolutionary biology
evolutionary history
foraging
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
General aspects
History
macroecology
modularity
Phylogeny
Plant Physiological Phenomena
seasonality
Seed Dispersal - physiology
Seeds
traits
Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution
weighted bipartite networks
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Summary:Modularity is a recurrent and important property of bipartite ecological networks. Although well‐resolved ecological networks describe interaction frequencies between species pairs, modularity of bipartite networks has been analysed only on the basis of binary presence–absence data. We employ a new algorithm to detect modularity in weighted bipartite networks in a global analysis of avian seed‐dispersal networks. We define roles of species, such as connector values, for weighted and binary networks and associate them with avian species traits and phylogeny. The weighted, but not binary, analysis identified a positive relationship between climatic seasonality and modularity, whereas past climate stability and phylogenetic signal were only weakly related to modularity. Connector values were associated with foraging behaviour and were phylogenetically conserved. The weighted modularity analysis demonstrates the dominating impact of ecological factors on the structure of seed‐dispersal networks, but also underscores the relevance of evolutionary history in shaping species roles in ecological communities.
ISSN:1461-023X
1461-0248
DOI:10.1111/ele.12245