Biodiversity; Ecosystem; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Ecology
Abstract :
[en] Larger geographical areas contain more species-an observation raised to a law in ecology. Less explored is whether biodiversity changes are accompanied by a modification of interaction networks. We use data from 32 spatial interaction networks from different ecosystems to analyse how network structure changes with area. We find that basic community structure descriptors (number of species, links and links per species) increase with area following a power law. Yet, the distribution of links per species varies little with area, indicating that the fundamental organization of interactions within networks is conserved. Our null model analyses suggest that the spatial scaling of network structure is determined by factors beyond species richness and the number of links. We demonstrate that biodiversity-area relationships can be extended from species counts to higher levels of network complexity. Therefore, the consequences of anthropogenic habitat destruction may extend from species loss to wider simplification of natural communities.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Galiana, Núria ; Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France. galiana.nuria@gmail.com ; Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. galiana.nuria@gmail.com
Lurgi, Miguel ; Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France ; Department of Biosciences, Swansea University, Singleton Park, UK
Bastazini, Vinicius A G ; Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France ; Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, University of Évora, Évora, Portugal
Bosch, Jordi ; CREAF, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
Cagnolo, Luciano; Institute for Multidisciplinary Plant Biology (IMBIV), Faculty of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, National University of Cordoba and CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina
Cazelles, Kevin ; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Claramunt-López, Bernat ; CREAF, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain ; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
Emer, Carine ; Departament of Ecology, Institute of Bioscience, São Paulo State University (UNESP), CP 199, Rio Claro, Brazil ; Departament of Botany, University of Pernambuco (UFPE), CP 199, Recife, Brazil
Fortin, Marie-Josée ; Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Grass, Ingo ; Ecology of Tropical Agricultural Systems, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany
Hernández-Castellano, Carlos ; CREAF, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain ; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
Jauker, Frank ; Department of Animal Ecology, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany
Leroux, Shawn J ; Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
McCann, Kevin ; Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
McLeod, Anne M ; Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Montoya, Daniel ; Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France ; Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Leioa, Spain ; IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain
Mulder, Christian ; Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Osorio-Canadas, Sergio ; CREAF, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain ; Departamento de Ecología de la Biodiversidad, Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México City, México
Rodrigo, Anselm ; CREAF, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain ; Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Catalonia, Spain
Steffan-Dewenter, Ingolf; Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, Würzburg, Germany
Traveset, Anna ; Global Change Research Group, Inst. Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), Esporles, Spain
Valverde, Sergi ; Evolution of Technology Laboratory, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, CSIC-Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain ; European Centre for Living Technology, Venice, Italy
Vázquez, Diego P ; Argentine Institute for Dryland Research, CONICET and National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina ; Faculty of Exact and Natural Sciences, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
Wood, Spencer A; eScience Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Gravel, Dominique ; Département de Biologie, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada
Roslin, Tomas ; Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden ; Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
Thuiller, Wilfried; Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Univ. Savoie Mont Blanc, CNRS, LECA, Grenoble, France
Montoya, José M ; Centre for Biodiversity Theory and Modelling, Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station, CNRS, Moulis, France
We thank J.-F. Arnoldi, M. Barbier and Y. Zelnik for numerous discussions that improved the quality of this paper. This work was supported by the TULIP Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-10-LABX-41 and 394 ANR-11-IDEX-002-02) to J.M.M., by a Region Midi-Pyrenees project (CNRS 121090) to J.M.M., and by the FRAGCLIM Consolidator Grant (726176) to J.M.M. from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program. The study was also supported by Spanish MICINN projects CGL2009-12646, CSD2008-0040 and CGL2013-41856 to J.B. and A.R. C.E. was funded through the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP 2015/15172-7). V.A.G.B. was funded by National Funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology under the Project UIDB/05183/2020. W.T. received funding from the ERA-Net BiodivERsA—Belmont Forum, with the national funder Agence National pour la Recherche (FutureWeb: ANR-18-EBI4–0009 and BearConnect: ANR-16-EBI3-0003).
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