J Plant Ecol ›› 2022, Vol. 15 ›› Issue (6): 1133-1141 .DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtac052

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

The abundance effect on network nestedness is stronger for parasitic than herbivory interactions

Bin Lan, Xiaoli Hu, Ying Wang and Shucun Sun*   

  1. 1 Department of Ecology, School of Life Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China

    * Corresponding author. E-mail: shcs@nju.edu.cn
  • Received:2022-02-16 Revised:2022-04-25 Accepted:2022-03-13 Online:2022-03-13 Published:2022-12-01

Abstract: It has been suggested that the importance of network architecture to species diversity and stability should be based on preference networks (comprised of niche differentiations), rather than observational networks, because species abundance may significantly affect interaction frequencies. Considering that resource abundance is usually greater for herbivores than parasites, we hypothesize that the abundance effect is stronger for parasitic than herbivory interactions. To test this hypothesis, we collected 80 quantitative observational networks including 34 herbivorous and 46 parasitic networks from the published literature, and derived preference networks by removing the effects of species abundance. We then determined the network nestedness using both weighted NODF and spectral radius. We also determined species degree distribution, interaction evenness, weighted connectance and robustness for both observational and preference networks. The observational networks (including both herbivory and parasitic networks) were more nested judged by weighted NODF than spectral radius. Preference networks were less nested for parasitic than herbivory networks in terms of both weighted NODF and spectral radius, possibly because removing the abundance effect increased interaction evenness. These trends indicate that the abundance effect on network nestedness is stronger for parasitic than herbivory networks. Weighted connectance and robustness were greater in most preference networks than observational networks, indicating that preference networks may have high network stability and community persistence compared with observational ones. The data indicate that future network analyses should not only address the structural difference between mutualistic and antagonistic interactions, but also between herbivory and parasitic interactions.

Key words: network nestedness, herbivory network, parasitic network, preference network, species abundance effect on network structure

摘要:
多度对寄生型网络嵌套结构的影响大于食草型网络 因为物种多度显著影响种间互作频率,分析食物网结构对物种多样性和稳定性影响时,应基于能够反映物种真实偏好的网络(即偏好网),而不是直接观察得到的网络(即观察网)。食草网络中(植物为低营养级)的植物资源多度大于寄生网络中(动物为低营养级)寄主资源多度,因此我们假设:寄生网络的结构比食草网络的结构更易受到多度效应的影响。为验证这一假设,我们从已发表的文献中收集了80 个定量观察网络(包括34个植物-食草昆虫网络和46个寄生网络),应用有效多度模型去除物种多度对观察网络的影响,从而得出偏好网络。然后,我们应用weighted NODF和spectral radius两个嵌套系数表征网络嵌套性,分析了观察网和偏好网的物种链接数分布、相互作用均匀度、加权连通度和稳健性的差异。结果表明,在偏好网中,寄生网络的嵌套程度要低于食草网络,这可能是因为去除多度影响增加了种间作用频率的均匀度。偏好网的加权连通度和稳健性显著高于相应的观察网,表明偏好网比观察网具有更高的网络稳定性。未来的食物网研究不仅应关注互惠和拮抗网络的结构差异,还应该关注食草和寄生等不同类型拮抗食物网的结构差异。

关键词: 网络嵌套性, 食草网络, 寄生网络, 偏好网, 物种多度效应