Build-up mechanisms determining the topology of mutualistic networks

Author

Paulo R. Guimarães, Glauco Machado, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar et al.

Published

August 20, 2007

Doi

10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.08.004

Paulo R. Guimarães, Glauco Machado, Marcus A. M. de Aguiar et al 2007. Build-up mechanisms determining the topology of mutualistic networks. Journal of Theoretical Biology 249: 181–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.08.004

Publication Details

Published in: Journal of Theoretical Biology  Open Access: Yes

BibTeX

@article{RN25862,
   author = {Guimarães, Paulo R. and Machado, Glauco and de Aguiar, Marcus A M and Jordano, Pedro and Bascompte, Jordi and Pinheiro, Aluisio Aluísio and dos Reis, Sérgio Furtado Srgio Furtado and Guimaraes, Paulo R and Machado, Glauco and de Aguiar, Marcus A M and Jordano, Pedro and Bascompte, Jordi and Pinheiro, Aluisio Aluísio and dos Reis, Sérgio Furtado Srgio Furtado},
   title = {Build-up mechanisms determining the topology of mutualistic networks},
   journal = {Journal of Theoretical Biology},
   volume = {249},
   number = {2},
   pages = {181–189},
   abstract = {The frequency distribution of the number of interactions per species (i.e., degree distribution) within plant-animal mutualistic assemblages often decays as a power-law with an exponential truncation. Such a truncation suggests that there are ecological factors limiting the frequency of supergeneralist species. However, it is not clear whether these patterns can emerge from intrinsic features of the interacting assemblages, such as differences between plant and animal species richness (richness ratio). Here, we show that high richness ratios often characterize plant-animal mutualisms. Then, we demonstrate that exponential truncations are expected in bipartite networks generated by a simple model that incorporates build-up mechanisms that lead to a high richness ratio. Our results provide a simple interpretation for the truncations commonly observed in the degree distributions of mutualistic networks that complements previous ones based on biological effects. ?? 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.},
   keywords = {Mutualisms
Pollination
Seed Dispersal
Complex Networks
Patterns
Specialization
Coevolutionary Networks
Food-Web
Plant-Pollinator Interactions
Species Richness
Plant-Animal Interactions
Seed dispersal
Species richness
Connectance
Complex networks
Plant-animal interactions
Forbidden links
Forbidden Links
Asymmetries
Small networks
Small Networks},
   ISSN = {0022-5193 (Print)\r0022-5193 (Linking)},
   DOI = {10.1016/j.jtbi.2007.08.004},
   year = {2007},
   type = {Journal Article}
}