Ecological Networks over the Edge: Hypergraph Trait-mediated Indirect Interaction (TMII) Structure
Department
Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-26-2016
Abstract
Analyses of ecological network structure have yielded important insights into the functioning of complex ecological systems. However, such analyses almost universally omit non-pairwise interactions, many classes of which are crucial for system structure, function, and resilience. Hypergraphs are mathematical constructs capable of considering such interactions: we discuss their utility for studying ecological networks containing diverse interaction types, and associated challenges and strategies. We demonstrate the approach using a real-world coffee agroecosystem in which resistance to agricultural pests depends upon a large number of TMIIs. A hypergraph representation successfully reflects both the importance of species imposing such effects and the context-dependency of that importance in terms of how it is affected by removal of other species from the system.
Journal Title
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Journal ISSN
1872-8383
Volume
31
Issue
5
First Page
344
Last Page
354
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1016/j.tree.2016.02.006