Ecological Networks in The Tropics

Wesley Dáttilo · Victor Rico-Gray Editors
Ecological
Networks in
the Tropics
An Integrative Overview of Species
Interactions from Some of the Most
Species-Rich Habitats on Earth
Ecological Networks in the Tropics
Wesley Dáttilo • Victor Rico-Gray
Editors
Ecological Networks
in the Tropics
An Integrative Overview of Species
Interactions from Some of the Most
Species-Rich Habitats on Earth
Editors
Wesley Dáttilo Victor Rico-Gray
Red de Ecoetologia Universidad Veracruzana
Instituto de Ecologia AC Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
ISBN 978-3-319-68227-3 ISBN 978-3-319-68228-0 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959324
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

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Wesley Dáttilo dedicates this book to all his
mentors who supported him throughout his
academic career on ecological interaction
networks, especially Thiago Izzo, Victor
Rico-Gray, Paulo Guimarães, Kléber
Del-Claro, and Pedro Jordano.
Victor Rico-Gray dedicates this book to Alex
Rico Palacios, Carmelo Rico Belestá,
Thomasina Gray Wilkinson, and Leonard
B. Thien.
Foreword
The astonishing diversity of life is simultaneously a source of wonder and a chal-

lenge for those trying to understand how the earth’s millions of species are orga-
nized across continents and oceans. One approach is to study how each species has
adapted to its physical environment and its interactions with other species. Another
approach, at the other extreme, is to describe how local or regional ecosystems are
organized into broader biogeographic patterns. The study of ecological networks
has provided a way of bridging the gap between these extremes. By analyzing who
interacts with whom within communities, studies of ecological networks—that is,
webs of interacting species—have provided a way to probe how webs assemble as
new species arrive, how they dis-assemble as species go locally extinct, and how
webs change as species continue to evolve and coevolve.
Ecological Networks in the Tropics provides a thoughtful and forward-looking
set of insights into what we have learned from analyses of ecological networks in
general and, more particularly, from studies of some of the most species-rich habi-
tats on earth. Finding patterns within these webs requires an ecological understand-
ing of the direct and indirect ecological links among species. The question addressed
in these chapters is why use the mathematics and metrics of network theory to find
the patterns and infer some of the processes that shape them. The first two chapters
consider how and why network approaches have become so useful. Ings and Hawes
(Chap. 1) weave the historical pathways by which network approaches entered eco-
logical studies, and Andresen et al. (Chap. 2) highlight why the great diversity of
some tropical communities offers special challenges to our understanding of webs
of interacting species. Network approaches cannot answer all the important ques-
tions about the diversity of life, but the chapters by Dehling (Chap. 3) and Raimundo
et al. (Chap. 4) show convincingly how these approaches provide a systematic way
for ecologists to compare similarities and differences in ecological networks under
different ecological conditions.
Network approaches have been applied unevenly to studies of the web of life, but
that is changing quickly. So far, they have proven especially insightful for evaluat-
ing how plants interact with particular animal lineages such as ants (Del-Claro
et al., Chap. 5) or with many other taxa in particular ways, such as with pollinators
vii
viii Foreword
(Vizentin-Bugoni et al., Chap. 6), seed dispersers (Escribano-Avila et al., Chap. 7),
or herbivores (López-Carretero et al., Chap. 8). These studies have been particularly
useful in identifying common patterns in how plants interact mutualistically with
other taxa. Even broader insights into patterns of network assembly are becoming
possible as other forms of interaction are analyzed using network approaches,
including studies of animals and their parasites (Bellay et al., Chap. 9) and analyses
of interactions among tropical reef fish (Cantor et al., Chap. 10). Initially, many
network studies were based on patterns observed within a single year or a small
number of years, but as the number of longer-term studies has increased, so have the
opportunities to search for patterns in how networks change over time (Moreira
et al., Chap. 11)
There remains much to learn about the ecological, evolutionary, and coevolution-
ary conditions that shape similarities and dissimilarities among networks of inter-
acting species. Just keeping up on the range of innovative approaches to the study
of networks is becoming a challenge in itself (Antoniazzi et al., Chap. 13). The
insights gained so far, though, have produced yet more questions about why some
aspects of network structure are similar among different forms of interaction, even
as other aspects vary. And these studies are motivating the application of yet other
ecological and molecular approaches that will allow even deeper and broader
insights into the structure and dynamics of interaction networks (Cagnolo, Chap.
12). It should not surprise us that these studies of species interactions continue to
produce novel questions about the web of life. Species interactions are perhaps the
major driver of ongoing evolution and the diversity of life itself.
The greatest current challenges in studies of the organization of biodiversity are
to understand how complex networks form among mutualistic, antagonistic, and
communalistic species, how local networks assemble into broader regional net-
works, and how ongoing coevolution among species contributes to the continual
reorganization of networks. Tropical communities are those in which Darwin’s
“entangled bank” is the most entangled. These enlightening chapters on ecological
networks show that we have learned much in recent years, that we still have much
to learn, and that the study of tropical networks is rapidly expanding our appreciation
of the diversity of ways in which the diversity of life is organized.
John N. Thompson, PhD
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California, Santa Cruz,
Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Acknowledgments
Wesley Dáttilo thanks John N. Thompson who wrote a wonderful foreword for our
book. This book would not have been possible without the enthusiasm of a large
number of authors and reviewers at various institutions, including Victor Rico-Gray,
who joined me in this journey. I extend my heartfelt salute to all my students and
collaborators for all their support. Finally, I would like to express my deepest grati-
tude to my wife Jéssica Falcão. Thank you for being there for me from the very
beginning.
Victor Rico-Gray thanks the chapter authors since without their work the book
would not be possible. Also he thanks John N. Thompson for his kind words and
Wesley Dáttilo for the invitation to share the editorial work. Finally, thanks to my
wife Mónica Palacios Rios for her support throughout my ant work, thank you.
ix
Contents
1 Tropical Biodiversity: The Importance of Biotic Interactions

for Its Origin, Maintenance, Function, and Conservation.................. 1
Ellen Andresen, Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez, and Federico Escobar
2 The History of Ecological Networks...................................................... 15
Thomas C. Ings and Joseph E. Hawes
3 The Structure of Ecological Networks.................................................. 29
D. Matthias Dehling
4 Ecology and Evolution of Species-Rich Interaction Networks........... 43
Rafael Luís Galdini Raimundo, Flavia Maria Darcie Marquitti,
Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi, Mathias Mistretta Pires,
and Paulo Roberto Guimarães Jr
5 The Complex Ant–Plant Relationship
Within Tropical Ecological Networks................................................... 59
Kleber Del-Claro, Denise Lange, Helena Maura Torezan-Silingardi,
Diego Vinicius Anjos, Eduardo Soares Calixto, Wesley Dáttilo,
and Victor Rico-Gray
6 Plant-Pollinator Networks in the Tropics: A Review........................... 73
Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni, Pietro Kiyoshi Maruyama,
Camila Silveira de Souza, Jeff Ollerton, André Rodrigo Rech,
and Marlies Sazima
7 Tropical Seed Dispersal Networks: Emerging Patterns,
Biases, and Keystone Species Traits...................................................... 93
Gema Escribano-Avila, Carlos Lara-Romero, Ruben Heleno,
and Anna Traveset
8 Plant-Herbivore Networks in the Tropics............................................. 111
Antonio López-Carretero, Ek del-Val, and Karina Boege
xi
xii Contents
9 Host-Parasite Networks: An Integrative Overview

with Tropical Examples.......................................................................... 127
Sybelle Bellay, Fabrício Hiroiuki Oda, Karla Magalhães Campião,
Fábio Hideki Yamada, Ricardo Massato Takemoto,
and Edson Fontes de Oliveira
10 Interaction Networks in Tropical Reefs................................................ 141
Mauricio Cantor, Guilherme O. Longo, Luisa Fontoura,
Juan P. Quimbayo, Sergio R. Floeter, and Mariana G. Bender
11 Ecological Networks in Changing Tropics............................................ 155
Eduardo Freitas Moreira, Patrícia Alves Ferreira,
Luciano Elsinor Lopes, Raimunda Gomes Silva Soares,
and Danilo Boscolo
12 The Future of Ecological Networks in the Tropics.............................. 171
Luciano Cagnolo
13 A Useful Guide of Main Indices and Software
Used for Ecological Networks Studies................................................... 185
Reuber Antoniazzi Jr, Wesley Dáttilo, and Victor Rico-Gray
Index................................................................................................................. 197
List of Abbreviations
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid

EFN Extrafloral nectaries
J-C Janzen-Connell effect
URL Uniform resource locator
xiii
Chapter 1
Tropical Biodiversity: The Importance
of Biotic Interactions for Its Origin,
Maintenance, Function, and Conservation
Ellen Andresen, Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez, and Federico Escobar
Abstract Most of the Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity is found in tropical forests, a fact
that fascinates us today as it did the early naturalists of past centuries. It is in this
biome where a tremendously high number of coexisting species weave themselves
into the most complex web of life, linked together through biotic interactions. These
interactions are not only the threads that give structure to biotic communities, but they
are also responsible for their evolution and function. In this chapter, we try to render a
brief account of the roles that biotic interactions play in (1) the origin of tropical diver-
sity, (2) the maintenance of such diversity through facilitating species coexistence,
and (3) the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems. Our fascination with tropical
biodiversity is only matched by our fear of losing it. We finish this chapter by stating
the undeniable facts, showing how the threads in the web of life are being severed by
our own actions. Yet as long as we have some understanding of how the threads of
biotic interactions assemble, and if we succeed in conveying the urgency of applying
this information, we may be able to keep the web from falling apart.
1.1 Introduction
If one had to mention one common feature among all people ever interested in life on
Earth, it would be a fascination with the complexity of living forms and of their inter-
twining relationships; something that today, we call biodiversity. Biodiversity has
many facets, and while the one that has received the most attention is taxonomic
diversity, we now recognize the existence and importance of many other components
of biodiversity, such as genetic, phenotypic, functional, phylogenetic, and interaction
E. Andresen (*) • V. Arroyo-Rodríguez

Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Mexico
e-mail: [email protected]
F. Escobar
Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Xalapa, Mexico
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 1

W. Dáttilo, V. Rico-Gray (eds.), Ecological Networks in the Tropics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_1
2 E. Andresen et al.
diversity. The latter has received increasing attention in the last few decades, particu-
larly in the face of nature’s degradation. Every species on Earth interacts directly and
indirectly with many other species such that biotic interactions are at the core of most
ecological and evolutionary processes. Thus, biotic interactions play fundamental
roles in the evolution of biodiversity, the assembly and dynamics of biotic communi-
ties, and the functioning of ecosystems (Fig. 1.1; Thompson 1999; Tylianakis et al.
2008; Mittelbach 2012; Vellend 2016).
Nowhere in the world is the complexity of life, in its forms, functions, and inter-
actions, more ubiquitous than in the warm and humid tropics. Tropical forests con-
tain the vast majority of the Earth’s terrestrial biodiversity, and most taxa (with
notable exceptions) have peak diversities in the tropics (Corlett and Primack 2011).
Yet since Humboldt, Darwin, and Wallace, we have not stopped wondering how is
it possible that more than 40,000 tree species exist in tropical forests of the world,
while fewer than 130 are found in temperate Europe (Slik et al. 2015)? How can
500 ha in a tropical forest harbor over 670 species of butterflies (DeVries 2001)?
How can it be that a single species of tropical tree may interact with over 250 differ-
ent species of herbivorous insects (Novotny et al. 2010)? Questions like these have
driven countless scientific publications and will undoubtedly continue to move our
research agendas for a long time to come. Over the decades, an increasing number
of hypotheses have been proposed for explaining the origin and/or maintenance of
the seemingly impossible numbers of species occurring in tropical regional biotas
and coexisting in local tropical forest communities (reviewed, among others, by
Wright 2002; Brown 2014; Fine 2015). In many of these hypotheses, biotic interac-
tions play a prominent role.
More recently, and motivated by the current global biodiversity crisis that is
largely caused by the loss and degradation of tropical forests (Lewis et al. 2015),
two additional questions also occupy our research agendas: (1) How does biodiver-
sity affect ecosystem function? and (2) How do we conserve biodiversity? Extensive
research has shown strong influences of biodiversity on key aspects of the function-
ing of both natural and anthropogenic ecosystems, such as productivity, temporal
stability, nutrient cycling, and resistance to invasion (Cardinale et al. 2012; Hooper
et al. 2012). While traditionally studies on ecosystem function and conservation
have focused on the taxonomic component of biodiversity, the need to focus efforts
on the diversity of biotic interactions, although already indicated by Janzen (1974)
more than 40 years ago, has become a prominent theme since the beginning of the
new millennium (Tylianakis et al. 2008, 2010; Cardinale et al. 2012; Valiente-
Banuet et al. 2015).
It is not within the scope of this chapter to review the hypotheses proposed for
explaining the origin and maintenance of biodiversity in tropical forests or to
present a comprehensive account of the key roles that biodiversity plays in eco-
system function, nor of the challenges that we face in conserving it. Rather it is
the aim of this chapter to highlight the prominent roles that biotic interactions
play in the origin, maintenance, and functioning of tropical forest biodiversity
(Fig. 1.1), indicating some implications for the conservation of this unique but
vanishing biome.
1 Tropical Biodiversity: The Importance of Biotic Interactions for Its Origin… 3
Fig. 1.1 Biotic interactions in tropical forests (a) seen as both a component of biodiversity (internal
surface of the triangle; together with other components such as taxonomic, genetic, and functional diver-
sity), and as a process (edges of the triangle) responsible for the origin (e.g., speciation due to coevolution
and/or specialization), maintenance (e.g., species coexistence due to stabilizing and equalizing mecha-
nisms), and function of biodiversity (e.g., flows of matter and energy between trophic levels and comple-
mentarity effect within trophic levels). The two colors of the triangle represent both antagonistic (red)
and mutualistic (green) biotic interactions. Any biome can be represented by a similar triangle, with tri-
angle surface varying according to the biome’s biodiversity, which in turn will depend on the amount of
biotic interactions (edges). Highly simplified schematic representation of the web of life (b), depicting
1.2 B
iotic Interactions and the Origin of Tropical Forest
Biodiversity
New species arise through speciation. A combination of dispersal, drift, and selection
then determines the coterie of species coexisting in a given space, at a given time, at
any scale (Vellend 2016). Biotic interactions play a role in all these processes, except
drift, although the relative importance of drift can certainly be influenced indirectly
by biotic interactions, for example, antagonistic interactions that maintain species’
populations at low numbers may increase the occurrence of local chance extinction.
The central role of biotic interactions in determining the origin of tropical forest
biodiversity must already have been quite clear to Wallace when he wrote that “equa-
torial lands must […] have been unintermittingly subject to those complex influences
of organism upon organism, which seem the main agents in developing the greatest
variety of forms and filling up every vacant place in nature” (Wallace 1878).
To explain why tropical forests have more species than other biomes, some
hypotheses argue that net diversification rates in the tropics must be higher because
of either increased speciation and/or decreased extinction rates. Phylogenetic and
paleontological evidence exists in favor of both ideas (see Mittelbach 2012 and
references therein); however, how do biotic interactions favor higher diversification
rates in the tropics? To answer this question, let us first consider how biotic interac-
tions may affect speciation and extinction. Regarding extinction, biotic interactions
play a central role in favoring the coexistence of species through different mecha-
nisms, such as facilitating niche differentiation or promoting negative density-
dependent mortality, ultimately preventing or slowing down competitive exclusion
(see next section). In addition, when biotic interactions involve the movement of
gametes or individuals (e.g., pollination and seed dispersal by animals), they can
decrease extinction through facilitating patch recolonization, which is a crucial pro-
cess in avoiding local and regional extinction in today’s fragmented tropical land-
scapes (Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2017).
In terms of speciation, while extensive evidence exists on the role that biotic
interactions play in microevolution, linking interactions to patterns of macroevolu-
tionary diversification, still remains a challenge, though one that is quickly being
Fig. 1.1 (continued) how the interaction-component of diversity (20 arrows) is necessarily much higher
than the number of interacting groups of organisms (11 silhouettes). Each silhouette represents
a taxonomic/functional group, which are in turn grouped into four trophic levels: plants, herbivores,
carnivores, and apex carnivores. Straight-line arrows represent some of the possible biotic interactions
between trophic levels, and loop arrows some of the interactions within levels; red arrows represent
antagonistic interactions (competition and consumer–prey interactions), whereas green arrows represent
mutualistic relationships (symbiosis, free-living mutualisms, facilitation); solid arrows indicate direct
interactions, while dashed arrows indicate indirect or higher-order interactions (e.g., trophic cascades,
indirect mutualisms, apparent competition, predator-mediated coexistence). Most terrestrial biomes
could be represented by this diagram; the main difference between biomes would be accounted for by the
number of species within each trophic level, reaching maximum numbers in tropical forests, with an
associated exponential increase of biotic interactions within and between trophic levels. Images in (b)
used with permission from Microsoft
surmounted with advances in community phylogenetics (Weber et al. 2017). Total

geographic isolation of populations is not necessary for new species to arise, and
two non-exclusive mechanisms that often involve biotic interactions play a central
role in promoting parapatric or sympatric speciation: specialization and coevolution
(Fine 2015; Fig. 1.1). Specialization along abiotic gradients (e.g., differences in soil
nutrients) or biotic gradients (e.g., differences in mutualistic species) can cause
divergence among individuals, which may ultimately lead to the origin of a new
species (Fleming and Kress 2013; Galetti et al. 2013). Furthermore, in the case of
abiotic gradients, biotic interactions may accentuate the gradient’s strength, thus
promoting habitat specialization, as clearly shown by Fine et al. (2013). In their
studies in Amazonia, they have found strong evidence that insect herbivory interacts
with a gradient in soil fertility, strengthening the process of plant specialization for
either nutrient-rich or nutrient-poor soil, which likely facilitates parapatric plant
lineage divergence.
The interaction between plants and herbivorous insects has also figured promi-
nently in the coevolution literature since Ehrlich and Raven (1964) proposed the
idea that an arms race between insect herbivores and their host plants might cause
an escalating process of specialization and lineage divergence. They further
proposed that because insects are not limited by low temperatures in the tropics the
above process ought to be faster in the tropics, thus explaining geographic patterns
of species diversity. Ehrlich and Raven, however, did not propose specific mecha-
nisms through which herbivores might influence plant diversification (Marquis et al.
2016). Thus, despite the central role of the arms race paradigm in theories about
plant and insect diversification, strong evidence validating some of its key assump-
tions have only recently become available. Results of these studies (see Marquis
et al. 2016 and references therein) show that (1) the diversity and complexity of
chemical plant defenses increase in a plant lineage as it diverges over evolutionary
time, (2) the diversity of plant defenses is positively correlated with both the diver-
sity of herbivorous insects and their degree of specialization, and (3) herbivore spe-
cialization promotes plant species richness. Marquis et al. (2016) have proposed
two mechanisms through which insect herbivory might promote plant speciation,
suggesting that these mechanisms are more likely to occur in the tropics and inviting
further research to rigorously test these hypotheses.
Coevolution has many types of outcomes in space and time (Thompson 1999,
2006). Arms race dynamics (e.g., herbivorous insects and host plants), directional
selection toward extreme morphologies (e.g., floral spurs and the proboscis of prob-
ing pollinators), and extremely specialized interactions (e.g., figs and fig wasps)
might depict coevolution quite vividly, but they are not its most common outcomes.
Most often coevolution involves the continuous shaping of interacting populations
of groups of species (Thompson 1999, 2006), an apparently more “modest” pro-
cess, but nonetheless pervasive. This is the case of the relationships between plants
and their animal pollinators and seed dispersers, which assemble into networks
rather than obligate pair-wise mutualisms. According to Thompson (2006), as more
species are added to these networks, the possibilities for evolution also increase,
creating a “vortex” that promotes biodiversity, i.e., diversity begets diversity.
Recent studies on mutualistic networks strongly suggest that coevolution does

indeed shape species characteristics in these networks, resulting in higher rates of
evolution (Guimarães et al. 2011). In addition, recent tests support the long-held,
though controversial, hypothesis that biotic interactions, in particular pollination,
are associated with the macroevolutionary diversification of some angiosperm fami-
lies and their vertebrate pollinators (Fleming and Kress 2013). On the other hand,
while the most important groups of modern frugivorous vertebrates originated after
the first appearance of the fleshy-fruited families they consume, major radiations in
some plant taxa could have occurred in temporal concordance with radiations of
specialized frugivorous animals (Fleming and Kress 2013). For example, the diver-
sification of exceptionally species-rich genera of Neotropical plants, such as Piper
and Miconia (each with over 50 species), could have been caused by the appearance
of their highly specialized frugivores: Carollia bats and manakins, respectively
(Fleming and Kress 2013). While the role of animal seed dispersal in promoting
plant speciation may still not be clear, recent studies have shown that the loss of
certain frugivores can cause rapid evolutionary changes in important plant traits
such as seed size (e.g., Galetti et al. 2013).
Thus, we come back to the question posed above: How do biotic interactions
favor higher diversification rates in the tropics? There is little doubt that biotic inter-
actions affect the diversification of lineages (Weber et al. 2017), but for these effects
to be stronger in tropical forests, the interactions themselves would need to be more
intense and/or frequent in these biomes. The same logic holds in the case of biotic
interactions favoring species coexistence in tropical forests (next section). Yet the
existence of a latitudinal gradient in the strength of species interactions is still a
controversial and unresolved issue (but see Roslin et al. 2017). While some studies
present seemingly strong evidence in favor of higher interaction intensity in the
tropics (Schemske et al. 2009) or a positive relationship between temperature and
rates of ecological interactions (Brown 2014), others do not (Moles and Ollerton
2016). More studies will be needed to determine in which cases and to what extent
stronger biotic interactions are responsible for originating and/or maintaining higher
biodiversity in tropical forests, in comparison to other biomes.
1.3 B
iotic Interactions and the Maintenance of Tropical
Biodiversity
Diversity maintenance—the coexistence of species in the same time and space—

depends, among other factors, on the outcome of biotic interactions (Fig. 1.1). While
traditionally negative interactions such as competition and predator–prey relation-
ships were thought to be the main drivers of community structure, today we know
that positive interactions, such as mutualism and facilitation, can also have a tremen-
dous effect on species’ presence and abundance (Bronstein 2015). Furthermore,
there is a growing realization that the outcomes of particular pair-wise interactions
often depend not only on abiotic factors but also on other species, and that these
indirect or higher-order interactions play a crucial role in determining diversity

(Bairey et al. 2016). Because of the very high species richness in tropical forests,
interaction networks in this biome are complex systems, and we are still far from
identifying the most important mechanisms for the maintenance of tropical biodiver-
sity though some strong candidates have emerged.
The mystery of species coexistence is that based on the competitive exclusion prin-
ciple any biome, including tropical forests, should be composed of a few, strongly
competitive species in each guild. How then can tropical forests maintain such high
species richness? For many years, the idea of niche packing, caused by either the
existence of more niches and/or narrower niches, has been a popular hypothesis for
explaining the maintenance of biodiversity in the tropics. For example, Metz (2012)
found that 90% of 136 tree seedling species in an Ecuadorian rainforest specialized in
recruiting, growing, and/or surviving in specific topographic conditions, thus contrib-
uting to the maintenance of plant diversity. Niche packing is the consequence of spe-
cialization, which can be an important process not only for the maintenance but also
for the origin of diversity (see previous section). While some types of biotic interac-
tions in tropical forests have a high degree of specialization (e.g., interactions between
plants and herbivorous insects, Becerra 2015; symbiotic interactions between ants and
myrmecophytes, Dáttilo et al. 2013), others have been found to have lower specializa-
tion in tropical regions compared to temperate biomes (e.g., pollination and seed dis-
persal networks, Schleuning et al. 2012).
Although for a period of time the niche concept lost much popularity, two impor-
tant and complementary conceptual frameworks (“modern coexistence theory” and
“contemporary niche theory”) have revived the niche and its role in species coexis-
tence (Letten et al. 2017 and references therein). Coexistence theory focuses on
high-order processes (sensu Vellend 2016), distinguishing two general types of
mechanisms that prevent or slow down competitive exclusion: (1) stabilizing mech-
anisms, which reduce niche overlap and increase negative frequency dependence,
and (2) equalizing mechanisms, which reduce fitness differences among competing
species. Niche theory, on the other hand, focuses on low-level processes and aims at
determining the specific mechanisms underlying species’ coexistence (e.g., preda-
tion vs. competition vs. facilitation). Yet regardless of the theoretical framework
chosen (see Letten et al. 2017 for a comprehensive review and integration of both
frameworks), species interactions play crucial roles in many of the mechanisms
proposed for the maintenance of tropical diversity.
A well-known example of how biotic interactions may maintain diversity in trop-
ical forests is the Janzen-Connell (J-C) effect, which is in turn an example of the
classical idea of predator-mediated coexistence. According to the J-C model, plant
enemies such as seed predators, seedling/sapling herbivores, and pathogens acting
in a distance-dependent fashion prevent replacement of a plant by a conspecific,
thus promoting species diversity (Terborgh 2012). There is now sufficient empirical
evidence validating the J-C effect (Terborgh 2013), but whether this effect is stron-
ger or more prevalent in tropical forests compared to other biomes still remains to
be tested (Fine 2015). Other mechanisms facilitating species coexistence are those
that involve ecological tradeoffs, usually associated with temporal and/or spatial
fluctuations in biotic and abiotic resources. Ecological tradeoffs may increase niche
differences (i.e., coexistence facilitated by niche partitioning) or decrease fitness
differences (i.e., coexistence facilitated by competitive equivalence) among species
(Burslem et al. 2005). Well-known among tropical forest plants are the survival/
colonization and defense/growth tradeoffs. For example, large-seeded species are
often better survivors in the shaded tropical understory, while small-seeded species
are better colonizers of suitable sites for recruitment such as canopy gaps (Wright
2002). On the other hand, the defense/growth tradeoff posits that species that invest
more in tissue growth do so at the cost of lower production of defenses against
herbivores (Viola et al. 2010). This tradeoff allows plants to specialize along abiotic
resource gradients (e.g., light, nutrients, moisture) such that species with high
growth rates but low defenses are dominant where resources are high, while species
with low growth but high defenses are dominant where resources are low. This trad-
eoff facilitates species coexistence and can also promote the formation of new spe-
cies (Fine et al. 2013; see previous section).
Finally, the observation in tropical forests that understory plants are generally
found in low densities has given rise to the hypothesis that the coexistence of many
plant species is accomplished through recruitment limitation (i.e., failure of a plant
to recruit in an available site) and the consequent lack of interspecific competition
(Schupp et al. 2002; Wright 2002). Lack of competition, however, does not mean
that biotic interactions do not influence recruitment limitation. For example, plant–
animal interactions can cause recruitment limitation through three general mecha-
nisms (Schupp et al. 2002): (1) source limitation, when pollination by animals is
low and/or pre-dispersal seed predation is high; (2) dissemination limitation, when
frugivores disperse seeds in low quantities, or to limited distances and/or produce
spatially aggregated seed depositions; and (3) establishment limitation, when post-
dispersal seed predation and/or seedling herbivory are high.
In summary, the coexistence of a high number of species in tropical forests, and
thus the maintenance of biodiversity, most likely depends on a combination of many
mechanisms acting simultaneously, most of which involve species interactions. The
network approach to the study of biotic interactions is yielding promising advances
in this area, as recent studies have shown that structural characteristics of mutualis-
tic networks, such as nestedness and asymmetry, seem to play crucial roles in facili-
tating species coexistence (Bascompte et al. 2006; Bastolla et al. 2009).
1.4 Biotic Interactions and Ecosystem Functioning
It is undeniable that the functioning of tropical forests relies on biotic interactions

(Fig. 1.1). For example, a typical tropical tree may require animals for its pollination
and seed dispersal; it may frequently have close mutualistic relationships with ants
and other organisms for protection against herbivores, and with mycorrhizal fungi
for efficient nutrient uptake, just to mention the direct positive interactions. The net-
work of mutualistic plant–pollinator interactions alone involves about 90% of
tropical angiosperms, more than a million species of insects, at least 1000 species of
birds, and approximately 100 species of mammals (Ollerton et al. 2011). Moreover,
in many tropical forests >80% of woody plants are dispersed by animals, most of
which are highly dependent on fruit for their survival (Fleming and Kress 2013).
Biotic interactions, being the basis of all trophic relationships among living
organisms, are the drivers of matter and energy flows in ecosystems (Thompson
et al. 2012). Non-trophic interactions also affect many important ecosystem pro-
cesses, for example nutrient cycling through the mutualistic interactions of plants
with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi (Burslem et al. 2005). These
interactions produce a positive feedback with direct effects on the nutrient cycle, as
well as indirect effects through microbial activity and consumption by herbivores,
which in turn are important avenues for carbon and nutrient transfer from plants to
soils (Metcalfe et al. 2014).
A topic that has received considerable attention and fostered much debate in the last
30 years is the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Loreau
et al. 2002). Assessing this relationship is crucial for understanding the processes
underlying ecosystem dynamics, stability, and productivity (Hooper et al. 2005).
Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the relationship between biodiver-
sity and ecosystem function (reviewed by Hart et al. 2001). Empirical evidence, how-
ever, comes mostly from controlled experiments testing the effects of species diversity
on a limited set of ecosystem functions (e.g., productivity). Yet natural ecosystems are
defined by many interdependent ecological processes, modulated largely by biotic
interactions such that multi-function and whole-ecosystem approaches are urgently
needed (Thompson et al. 2012; Fayle et al. 2015; Lefcheck et al. 2015).
Most hypotheses proposed to explain the positive relationship between biodiver-
sity and ecosystem function emphasize one of two main types of mechanisms: the
complementarity effect and the selection effect. According to the complementarity
effect, as species are added, the productivity of the ecosystem will increase because
of the effective partitioning of resources (Tilman et al. 1997). Therefore, if coexist-
ing species are able to avoid competitive exclusion by occupying different niches
(often mediated through biotic interactions; see previous section), then productivity
and stability in the ecosystem will increase (Turnbull et al. 2013). Complementarity-
effect models also consider facilitation, i.e., biotic interactions in which the pres-
ence of one or more species may enhance the capacity of other species to survive
and reproduce (Valladares et al. 2015). In contrast, the selection effect posits that the
relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem function merely occurs because
highly competitive species play the greatest roles in ecosystem functioning.
According to this idea, as diversity increases, there is a greater likelihood of high-
functioning species being present and driving ecosystem function (Hooper et al.
2005). Recent studies in tropical forests suggest that both mechanisms, complemen-
tarity and selection, are not mutually exclusive and that both can operate simultane-
ously to affect productivity (Fargione et al. 2007) although their relative importance
may be context- and scale-dependent. For example, Cavanaugh et al. (2014) found
that aboveground carbon storage in tropical forests increased with both taxonomic
diversity and functional dominance, while another study showed that dominance
was more important than species traits in determining a species’ contribution to

ecosystem functions (Lohbeck et al. 2016).
Biodiversity can be visualized as a complex ecological network, and the next
step in studies addressing the relationship between diversity and ecosystem function
will benefit hugely from using a network approach. Recent studies show that inter-
actions networks tend to be highly structured, and that some structural attributes not
only promote the coexistence of species (Bascompte et al. 2006; Bastolla et al.
2009), but may also facilitate resilience and stability in the face of disturbance
(Thébault and Fontaine 2010; Tylianakis et al. 2010). Nonetheless, depending on
what species are affected by disturbance, their loss from biotic networks can cause
cascading effects, altering both the structure and functioning of communities and
reducing ecosystem stability. For example, when species that are particularly impor-
tant in structuring interaction networks (e.g., highly interacting species) are also
particularly sensitive to disturbance, then the network’s ability to withstand changes
and maintain ecosystem functions will be low (Tylianakis et al. 2008, 2010). In
addition, it has been shown that certain functional traits of species (e.g., animal
body size) are often related to its importance in structuring interaction networks
(Eklöf et al. 2013). Unfortunately, there is also often a positive correlation between
the amount of function associated with particular functional traits and the risk of
extinction of species with those traits (e.g., Vidal et al. 2014).
A greater number of species interacting is a form of insurance for long-term
ecosystem functioning, and represents a buffer against environmental variation,
including climate change (Thébault and Fontaine 2010). Yet, we are barely begin-
ning to understand how the structural patterns of biotic interaction networks can
influence ecosystem function and stability (Tylianakis et al. 2010), which in turn
affect the supply of ecosystem goods and services of vital importance for human
well-being. The development of a network approach for assessing what the effects
of losing species interactions might be on ecosystem function is an emerging chal-
lenge that will improve our capacity for predicting and mitigating the effects of
global changes on our planet.
1.5 Management and Conservation Implications
Human activities have caused dramatic global impact on the environment, particularly
in tropical forests, including deforestation, forest fragmentation, logging, and defau-
nation (Dirzo et al. 2014; Lewis et al. 2015). Predicting, preventing, and reverting
such impact require a much better understanding of biotic interactions and ecological
networks than we currently have, as human impact not only affects individual species,
but also alters complex ecological relationships often even before species are lost
(Valiente-Banuet et al. 2015). As described in more detail in the Chap. 11 of this book,
altered ecological relationships are increasingly common in human-modified tropical
landscapes, and both top-down and bottom-up effects of disturbances have repercus-
sions through ecological networks negatively affecting ecosystem integrity.
For instance, the disappearance of top predators causes many types of top-down
cascading effects, altering the abundance and/or behavior of mammalian seed pred-
ators and herbivores, which may in turn cause changes in tree seedling and sapling
assemblages (e.g., Martínez-Ramos et al. 2016). Yet while the loss and decline of
large predators and other large animals may be more conspicuous, defaunation is as
pervasive in smaller animal taxa, with probably greater consequences for ecosystem
functions (Dirzo et al. 2014). The overall effects of defaunation and other distur-
bances may be hard to predict as not only top-down, but also bottom-up effects
cascade through the network of interacting organisms. For example, insect leaf
damage can be higher in deforested tropical forest landscapes, where the simplifica-
tion of vegetation structure associated with edge effects undermines the bottom-up
control. In other words, plant anti-herbivore defenses are reduced in forests domi-
nated by fast-growing pioneer plant species, thus improving the conditions for her-
bivore proliferation (Morante-Filho et al. 2016).
In summary, forest resilience and biodiversity conservation in human-modified
tropical landscapes depend on the impact that human disturbances have on key eco-
logical processes, many of which involve biotic interactions, such as seed dispersal,
predation, and herbivory (Arroyo-Rodríguez et al. 2017). A take-home message
from this brief essay is that additional studies on biotic interactions and ecological
networks are urgently needed if we are to attain a better understanding on the origin,
maintenance, functioning, and management of tropical biodiversity. We also want to
stress the importance of focusing conservation strategies on preserving ecological
interactions, in addition to the traditional focus on key taxa (Tylianakis et al. 2010;
Valiente-Banuet et al. 2015). We cannot finish this chapter without remembering
Janzen’s almost prescient assertion: “What escapes the eye, however, is a much
more insidious kind of extinction: the extinction of ecological interactions” (Janzen
1974). As long as ecological interactions are preserved, species diversity, evolution-
ary processes, and ecosystem functioning will be maintained in tropical forests, and
all other biomes on Earth.
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Chapter 2
The History of Ecological Networks
Thomas C. Ings and Joseph E. Hawes
Abstract The complex web of inter-relationships observed in nature that confronted

early natural historians on their voyages to the tropics, inspired not only the theory of
evolution by natural selection but also the development of ecology as a scientific
discipline and set the foundation for the study of ecological networks. Modern net-
work analyses owe much to these early observations of species interactions but also
to pioneering advances in the fields of mathematics and social sciences. In this chap-
ter, we review the history of ecological network studies, documenting their back-
ground in the fields of natural history, mathematics and social sciences, along with
the most influential players and the ideas that they introduced. We continue the story
up to the present day, documenting developments within ecology including food web
models and mutualistic networks, and emerging concepts such as individual-based,
trait-based and multi-layer networks. Following generations of detailed observations
and theoretical development, modern network ecologists now have both the data and
the analytical techniques to advance our understanding of nature’s interdependencies,
particularly in the diverse tropical environments that so captivated early naturalists.
2.1 Introduction
The network of interactions that exists between different organisms, and between
organisms and their environment, are the focus of ecology as a science. While its
roots can be found in early natural history observations, many fundamental princi-
ples of network analyses were initiated first by mathematicians (Box 2.1) and social
scientists (Box 2.2). The conceptual leap in applying mathematical models to the
study of species interactions was in large part due to the wonder inspired in the
minds of temperate naturalists on their first exposure to the incredible diversity of
organisms and interactions to be found in the tropics (Chap. 1). Even then, it has
taken the cumulative effort of many generations of researchers to reach the point
T.C. Ings (*) • J.E. Hawes

Department of Biology, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge CB1 1PT, UK

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_2
16 T.C. Ings and J.E. Hawes
Box 2.1 Interactions with Mathematics

The ideas of Malthus on the positive checks to population growth, which
were so influential in developing the theory of evolution by natural selec-
tion, also had a direct influence on the derivation of the logistic equation
(Verhulst 1845) and on the mathematical models of predator–prey relation-
ships later developed independently by Alfred Lotka and Vito Volterra
(Lotka 1925; Volterra 1926). These simple trophic interactions, representing
minimum length food chains, can be viewed as the first ecological networks
to be modelled mathematically, opening the possibilities for a quantitative
approach to ecology.
The background for more realistic, complex food webs stems from the
earlier seminal work by mathematician Leonard Euler in solving the
Königsberg bridges problem (Euler 1736). This problem, which may seem
trivial, and indeed did at first to Euler, concerned how to walk in a circuit
through the city today known as Kaliningrad, by crossing each of the city’s
seven bridges only once and returning to the starting point. Euler generalised
his solution to cover any number of landmasses and bridges, giving rise to the
new mathematical field of graph theory (Tutte 2001) which led, in turn, to
network theory (Newman 2003).
Further pioneering work in this field was provided by mathematicians Paul
Erdős and Alfred Rényi, with their construction of random graphs (Erdős and
Renyi 1959). These ideas were later developed to relate to complex networks
(Barabási and Albert 1999) and adapted from theoretical physics to apply to
ecological networks (Cohen et al. 1990; Margalef 1991). Physics also deliv-
ered the background for the many contributions of Robert May to theoretical
ecology. May notably challenged the concept that diverse systems are more
stable (May 1972), stimulating further examination of the complexity–stabil-
ity debate that continues to the present day (McCann 2000; Allesina and Tang
2015; Jacquet et al. 2016). Mathematics continued to underpin key develop-
ments in ecology, from multi-species Lotka-Volterra models (May 1973;
Pimm and Lawton 1978), metabolic theory (Brown et al. 2004) and optimal
foraging (Petchey et al. 2008). This integration between mathematics and
ecology is exemplified in network researchers such as Joel Cohen, who was
the first to collate and analyse collections of food webs from the literature
using niche-overlap graphs (Cohen 1978; Cohen et al. 1990).
today where we are able to more precisely explore the complexities of tropical inter-
action networks.
Recognising the importance of appreciating past literature (Belovsky et al. 2004),
we review the history of ecological network studies, documenting their background
in the fields of natural history, mathematics and social sciences, along with i nfluential
2 The History of Ecological Networks 17
Box 2.2 Interactions with Social Sciences

In addition to the contribution by Malthus (1798), another critical input from
the social sciences towards modern network analyses came from the ‘small
world’ experiments of social psychologist Stanley Milgram (Kleinfeld 2002).
These experiments recorded the number of first-name contacts a posted letter
had to pass through to reach a target individual, in order to explore the distri-
bution of path lengths in a network. The results were the source of the popular
phrase ‘six degrees of separation’, subsequently adapted to form the basis of
Bacon numbers (connections to the actor Kevin Bacon in the film industry;
Collins and Chow 1998) and Erdős numbers (co-authorships with the mathe-
matician Paul Erdős; Castro and Grossman 1999).
The small world experiments and mathematical advances (Box 2.1) such as
graph theory stimulated a network-based approach across the social sciences
(Borgatti et al. 2009), paralleling progress in ecology. Exchange of ideas and
tools for network analysis continued between fields, into areas as diverse as
computing (Lazer et al. 2009), finance (May et al. 2008), epidemiology
(Klovdahl et al. 1994), neurology (Bullmore and Sporns 2009) and security
(Dupont 2004).
players and the ideas that they introduced (Fig. 2.1). Considering the large number
of contributions, this is necessarily a series of selective highlights, focussing on the
principal hubs within the vast network of network proponents. Additional details
may be found in other reviews (Newman 2003; Bersier 2007; Egerton 2007a; Ings
et al. 2009; Layman et al. 2015).
2.2 Pioneering Natural Historians
Pioneers in the succession of ecological networks include Hippocrates, Aristotle

and Theophrastus, who made the first documented natural history observations in
Ancient Greece (Fig. 2.1). Herodotus recorded one of the earliest accounts of mutu-
alism in his (unconfirmed) observation of plovers removing leeches from crocodiles
(Bronstein 2015), before accounts of pollination and seed dispersal by Aristotle and
Theophrastus (Thanos 1994). These ideas were later taken forward by Arab schol-
ars, notably Al-Jāḥiẓ in ‘Kitāb al-Hayawān’ (‘The Book of the Animals’), who intro-
duced the concept of food chains (Palacios 1930).
Many of these earliest observations of species interactions focussed on trophic
interactions but (with the contribution by Al-Jāḥiẓ often overlooked) it was not
until the eighteenth century that individual interactions were combined into a
Fig. 2.1 Timeline showing progression in ecological network concepts over history
series by the founding microbiologist Antoine van Leeuwenhoek to produce what

is usually recognised as the first described food chain (Egerton 1968). This devel-
opment was also clearly present in the thinking of the naturalist Gilbert White
(White 1789; Egerton 2007c) and the father of modern taxonomy Carl Linnaeus
(Egerton 2007b), particularly in his essay ‘The Economy of Nature’, where he
outlined the sequential steps of both a terrestrial and an aquatic food chain
(Linnaeus 1775).
Recognising that the simple food-chain model did not fully reflect the more
complex interdependencies present in nature is often credited to Darwin’s image of
an ‘entangled bank’ (Darwin 1859). However, much as with his ideas on natural
selection, these thoughts were shared by relatively neglected contemporaries
such as Alfred Russell Wallace, whose descriptions of tropical fruit-eating birds
(Wallace 1853), for example, accurately illustrate the diffuse, generalist networks
whose prevalence have only recently confirmed by modern analyses (Bascompte
and Jordano 2007). Even more important is the critical role of Alexander von
Humboldt, whose influence on Darwin, amongst others, cannot be underestimated

(Wulf 2015). Humboldt’s concept of Naturgemälde showed emphatically how
‘nature is a living whole’; in describing the web of life, he emphasised both relation-
ships between species, and those between living organisms and the natural environ-
ment (Humboldt and Bonpland 1814; Humboldt 1851).
Humboldt’s Personal Narrative was read and highlighted by Darwin on the
Beagle, with particular passages clearly inspiring subsequent sections in On the
Origin of Species (Wulf 2015). Compare, for example, Humboldt’s imagery of
beasts and birds in forest thickets with Darwin’s ‘entangled bank’, or Humboldt’s
recognition of the importance of Mauritia palms in the Llanos of Venezuela with
Darwin’s comparable description of kelp forests off the coast of Chile. Wulf illus-
trates how Darwin himself credited Humboldt as his primary influence, with his
earlier accounts of the tropics providing stimulation for Darwin’s voyage, and help-
ing him to see that all plants and animals ‘are bound together by a web of complex
relations’ (Darwin 1859).
Many others also stood on the shoulders of Humboldt. Amongst those inspired by
his thoughts were Karl Möbius, who introduced the term ‘biocoenosis’ to describe
the biotic community (Möbius 1877), and Ernst Haeckel, who coined the term ‘ecol-
ogy’ to describe ‘the total science of the connections of the organism to the sur-
rounding external world’ (Haeckel 1866; Egerton 2013). Man was certainly already
included within these concepts at this stage, with Humboldt, Darwin, Haeckel and
Möbius all appreciating the interdependence of humans on the natural environment
and the destructive role that their actions could potentially have in unravelling the
web of interactions. With borders between disciplines yet to become so established,
it is also interesting to note how the thinking of both Darwin and Wallace was influ-
enced by the ideas on population checks put forward by the political economist
Thomas Malthus (Malthus 1798). Humboldt had earlier remarked upon the role of
predators in checking the population growth of capybaras and turtles along the
Orinoco but it was the reflections of Malthus’ on the logarithmic growth he observed
in populations, compared to the arithmetic growth in food supply, that provided the
theoretical framework needed for Darwin’s ideas on the ‘struggle for existence’, in
terms of both inter- and intra-specific competition (Bowler 1976).
2.3 Early Ecologists
As Darwin famously continued to focus on competition, many of the other pioneers

in the field of ecology, such as Stephen Alfred Forbes (1887) and Eugen Warming
(1895), remained more interested in trophic interactions and relationships with the
abiotic environment. Warming’s research in Denmark was supplemented by expedi-
tions to tropical sites in Brazil, Venezuela and Trinidad, while Forbes focussed on
temperate environments, notably in the lake systems of North America. The promi-
nent position of limnology in the history of ecological network development was
reinforced by the work of August Thienemann in lake communities of northern
Germany (Thienemann 1926) and of G. Evelyn Hutchinson in North American

lakes, notably Linsey Pond (Hutchinson 1957). This in turn influenced Roman
Margalef’s work founded on aquatic and marine ecosystems in Spain (Margalef
1991), and inspired Raymond Lindeman to produce his famous food cycle figure
showing the relationships between producers, consumers and decomposers in Cedar
Bog Lake (Lindeman 1942).
Before Lindeman and Thienemann, trophic links had rarely been visualised in
this way. Perhaps the first diagrammatic representation of an ecological network was
created by Lorenzo Camerano (Camerano 1880), when combining multiple food
chains into an integrated web. However, Camerano’s contribution was seemingly
long overlooked and this shift from food chains to food webs, together with the leap
from verbal to visual descriptions, was slow to be adopted more widely, with the
next examples not provided until the twentieth century (e.g. Pierce et al. 1912;
Shelford 1937). Lindeman’s diagram was particularly important in its inclusion of
bacteria and other decomposers to loop the food chain back on itself and demon-
strate the continuous cycling of nutrients within the system. At this point, food webs
or food cycles were mainly still generalised although both Lindeman and Thienemann
now had the underlying species specific data that Camerano had previously lacked.
Charles Elton played a major role in popularising the use of diagrams to repre-
sent networks through his book Animal Ecology (Elton 1927), which was also
responsible for introducing the terms ‘food chain’ and ‘food cycle’, and promoting
the concepts of ecological niches and the food pyramid. As more field data were
collected, it became clear that some food webs were more complex than others, and
ecological niche partitioning (Elton 1927; MacArthur 1958) provided a crucial
approach for interpreting how species were distributed within webs. Complexity,
however, did not mean randomness, and the growing number of detailed cases even-
tually allowed patterns to be recognised within and between networks.
For example, Elton observed the progressive decrease in abundance from the base
of the food chain to the top predator, the pinnacle of his ‘pyramid of numbers’ (Elton
1927). Lower abundance, however, did not imply less importance, as demonstrated
by Paine’s renowned experiments of predator removal, which cemented the concept
of ‘keystone species’ (Paine 1966). The cascade effects that rippled through trophic
levels clearly demonstrated the varying influence that species had on community
stability. While Paine explained the limits to food chain length by top-down control,
Lindeman’s inclusion of decomposers and parasites added bottom-up control. What
a species did within the ecosystem was important, and the characteristics of a net-
work appeared to be important for how they responded to disturbance, supporting the
idea that structure affected function, just as in other areas of biology (Pimm 1982).
Both Elton and Robert MacArthur proposed the notion that ‘complexity begets
stability’ (MacArthur 1955; Elton 1958), predicting that complex tropical systems
were more stable than simple temperate ones. This hypothesis required testing but,
since complexity was difficult to assess by eye alone, it was necessary to introduce
simple metrics that allowed comparison across networks (Chaps. 3 and 13).
Connectance, the number of links between nodes, was adopted as a common mea-
sure of complexity. This began the use of quantitative metrics but, at this point,
analytical tools were still lacking to test many of the hypotheses that Elton and oth-
ers were forming. The Odum brothers, Eugene and Howard, recognised that ecol-
ogy needed a stronger mathematical foundation, e.g. in their consideration of energy
flow between trophic levels (Odum and Odum 1959). Eugene Odum was also an
early advocate for expanding traditional food webs that comprise antagonistic tro-
phic links to include mutualistic interactions. More generally though, this cohort
encouraged a more mathematical attitude towards investigating ecosystem net-
works, including a modelling approach that paved the way for modern analyses.
2.4 Food Web Models
With solid mathematical foundations, and a rapidly increasing amount of data avail-
able on ecological interactions, more sophisticated models could be produced and
tested. Stouffer (2010), in their excellent review of food web models, proposed two
broad modelling approaches used in the context of ecological networks: (1) phe-
nomenological models, where rules are used to describe foraging behaviour, and (2)
population-level models, where observed emergent properties of food webs are
based upon decisions of individuals, i.e. they are mechanistic. The key phenomeno-
logical models used to date are the cascade (Cohen and Newman 1985), niche
(Williams and Martinez 2000) and nested-hierarchy (Cattin et al. 2004) models, as
well as a number of their derivatives (e.g. Warren et al. 2010). They are used to
generate model networks whose properties can then be compared with those of
empirical networks (Stouffer 2010).
In essence, the cascade model assumes that species in the network are ordered
along a single dimension, e.g. trophic level, body size or metabolism, and that pred-
ators choose prey randomly from those with a lower rank along that dimension
(Cohen and Newman 1985). The main problem with this model is that it does not
allow for cannibalism or feeding cycles (Allesina and Pascual 2009), aspects often
found in empirical food webs (e.g. Denno et al. 2004).
The niche model (Williams and Martinez 2000) allows for feeding cycles because
it includes a niche range, i.e. a limited selection of lower ranked species that a
predator can consume. This leads to the so-called interval networks, where the diets
of predators are contiguous when prey are ordered along a single niche dimension.
While there has been some debate as to whether empirical food webs are interval or
not, by measuring the degree of diet contiguity rather than using binary measures
for detecting interval networks, we find that many food webs are significantly inter-
val (Allesina et al. 2008; Petchey et al. 2008).
The nested-hierarchy model proposed by Cattin et al. (2004) uses phylogenetic
constraints and adaptation as its rules for prey selection, and thereby allows for non-
contiguous diets. Despite very different rules, its performance is similar to that of
the niche model. This is believed to be due to the fact that both models satisfy two
conditions that allow them to predict empirical food web properties: (1) species
values along the single niche dimension form a completely ordered set, and (2) the
probability that a species preys on a fraction of species with lower values on the
niche dimension decays exponentially (Stouffer et al. 2005).
The validity of comparing models based on their ability to reproduce structural

properties of networks has been questioned (Allesina et al. 2008). Arguing that net-
work metrics are not independent and that some models do well for certain metrics
while others do better for a different set of metrics, Allesina et al. (2008) propose
that models should be compared by their ability to predict all feeding links, i.e. the
structure of the whole network. As none of the earlier models are able to predict
both cannibalism and feeding cycles, Allesina et al. (2008) decomposed networks
into reproducible and irreproducible links allowing them to calculate the total
likelihood for the models. As models based on a single niche dimension were not
sufficient to accurately replicate empirical food webs, Allesina et al. (2008) gener-
ated a new general model using a minimum niche range, whereby species at the
extent of the range are always preyed upon and other species in the range are preyed
upon at a probability constrained by forbidden links (i.e. cannot occur due to the
constraints of other traits). This allows for gaps (non-intervality) in the food web
and is based on simple parameters, the number of species, density of links and prob-
ability of forbidden links, all of which are available from empirical data.
In contrast to phenomenological models, population-level models start with pro-
cesses operating at the individual level, which lead to interaction patterns emerging
at the level of the whole community. Another important distinction is that phenom-
enological models use emergent properties of networks as their parameters, whereas
population models use lower level processes such as adaptation, speciation and for-
aging behaviour (Loeuille and Loreau 2005; Beckerman et al. 2006). The popula-
tion model by Beckerman et al. (2006) is based on foraging theory and uses diet
breadth to predict interactions between species. The predictive power of the diet
breadth model was further increased by including body size allometry (Petchey
et al. 2008). This type of population model allows specific hypotheses about mecha-
nisms determining interactions to be tested and also identifies trophic interactions
which may be determined by alternative processes. A recent extension of this model,
parameterised with individual level body size data, accurately predicts twice as
many links (83%) as the model based on species averaged body size data (Woodward
et al. 2010). This theme of using individual-based data to improve our understand-
ing of the mechanisms driving species interactions in complex communities will be
taken up below.
2.5 Modern Developments in Ecological Network Analysis
During the last three decades, there has been a rapid development of new approaches
to understanding ecological complexity, which have been well documented in sev-
eral key works (Hall and Raffaelli 1993; Dunne 2005; May 2006). As well as new
analytical approaches, there is a growing catalogue of highly resolved networks
constructed using quantified interaction data rather than just binary information
(Ings et al. 2009). This shift in focus, combined with parallel developments in other
fields of network theory, and increasingly powerful computers, is allowing us to
address more detailed questions. As these developments represent a large body

of work, our intention here is to give only a brief overview of earlier advances in
ecological network studies.
Most of the early work on ecological networks was dominated by trophic inter-
actions, i.e. food webs, perhaps because the foundation of ecological network mod-
elling was the Lotka-Volterra predator–prey models. Indeed, food web studies still
dominate, but there has been a rapid increase in studies of other interaction types
since the 1990s (Ings et al. 2009), including symbiotic networks: plant-ant (Chap. 5),
plant-pollinator (Chap. 6), plant-frugivore (Chap. 7), host-parasitoid, and host-par-
asite networks (Chap. 9). Even more recently, we have seen the emergence of stud-
ies that are beginning to break down the traditional separation into different network
types, but rather to consider them as multiple layers of an integrated whole (Pocock
et al. 2012; Sauve et al. 2014; Dáttilo et al. 2016; Genrich et al. 2017).
Key developments in ecological network studies that have increased our under-
standing of complexity are the relationship between complexity and stability (May
1972; Allesina and Tang 2015; Jacquet et al. 2016), the non-random nature of real
networks (Albert et al. 1999; Dunne et al. 2002; Montoya et al. 2006), and the shift
from just considering the magnitude of complexity (Cohen 1978; Pimm 1982) to
understanding the configuration of complexity (Solé and Montoya 2001; Dunne
et al. 2002; Montoya et al. 2006). Important components of network topology that
have been studied to date are: distribution of links amongst species, nestedness,
modularity, and small world properties (reviewed in Ings et al. 2009 and Chaps. 3
and 13).
May (1972) proposed that for (randomly assembled) ecological networks to be
stable they must meet the condition i (SC)1/2 < 1, where i is the mean interaction
strength between species, S is the number of species, and C is connectance. This
implied that complex networks would be unstable, seemingly at odds with the fact
that real (ecological and non-biological) networks tend to be complex. However,
this disparity was partially explained when Albert et al. (1999) showed that real
networks are ‘scale-free’ (new nodes attach to highly connected nodes), non-ran-
dom networks (reviewed in Barabási 2009). Consequent analysis of degree distribu-
tions in biological food webs showed that while they were not generally small
world, scale-free networks, they were non-random and had similar topology to other
network types (Dunne et al. 2002). Shortly after, mutualistic networks were also
shown to be non-random, and again they had similar topology to other network
types (Bascompte et al. 2003), although they have truncated power law distributions
compared to non-biological networks (Montoya et al. 2006).
Comparative studies on the topology of different network types have revealed
some commonality, but also interesting differences. For example, food webs tend to
have strong hierarchical structure, often related to body size distributions, and a high
degree of generalism (Ings et al. 2009). Mutualistic networks (reviewed in Bascompte
and Jordano 2007), on the other hand, are typically nested (i.e., specialists interact
with a subset of the species which generalists interact with), heterogeneous (where a
few species are more highly connected than expected while the majority of species
have few links) and asymmetric (e.g. specialist pollinators tend to interact with
generalist plants and vice versa in plant-pollinator networks) (Bascompte and Jordano
2007). The dissimilarities in topology possibly reflect different mechanisms operat-
ing in different interaction types. Phylogenetic constraints are believed to be a major
driver of nestedness in mutualistic networks (Cattin et al. 2004), whereas body size
constraints are implicated in food webs, where the diets of small predators are a sub-
set of prey consumed by larger predators (Woodward and Warren 2007). Furthermore,
topology is believed to affect stability in different ways in different network types
(Thébault and Fontaine 2010): in food webs it is related to compartmentalised struc-
ture with weak links, whereas in mutualistic networks high levels of connectance and
nestedness promote stability. While there is no doubt that studies on network topol-
ogy have provided important insights into community structure, caution is required
when interpreting topological patterns. Some patterns, such as nestedness, could be
the result of neutral processes such as abundance (Lewinsohn et al. 2006), or could
just be ‘evolutionary spandrels’ (Valverde et al. 2016).
2.6 Concluding Remarks
The foundation of ecological network history came from early observations of natu-
ral history. As these observations accrued the first simple models (food chains) were
created, which gradually increased in complexity (food webs). The founding ecolo-
gists, often using relatively simple systems in temperate environments as the breed-
ing ground for ideas, started to think about general rules that could be understood
through mathematical principles, and quantified using metrics. In turn, these models
generated predictions and formed hypotheses that, at that point, lacked both the
large well-resolved datasets and tools with which to analyse them. With increasing
computing power, more complex models, and a global academic network that
allows the compilation of meta-datasets on an unprecedented scale, we are now
entering a new phase.
Food webs were at first generalised (e.g. Camerano) before being gradually
refined to species level. The species focus from population biology helped estab-
lished the species as the traditional unit for network analyses. Modern analyses,
extending beyond food webs to combine layers of antagonistic and mutualistic
interaction types, now also appear to be advancing in both directions by (1) increas-
ing resolution to the level of individuals and (2) adopting trait-based approaches that
focus on ecosystem function and may no longer require species identification.
Ecology, now armed with the mathematical and computational tools to quantify
interaction strengths and compare network metrics, is maturing as a field and yet the
latest sophisticated statistics and simulations still need to be fed with detailed obser-
vational data. This is particularly relevant as efforts return to focus on the diverse
tropical habitats that inspired early natural historians. The following chapters
describe the exiting opportunities that tropical environments provide to explore this
variety of species interactions and ecological networks.
Acknowledgements We are grateful for internal funding from Anglia Ruskin University to JEH
and thank M.A.R. Mello for valuable comments on a previous version of the manuscript.
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Chapter 3
The Structure of Ecological Networks
D. Matthias Dehling
Abstract Ecological networks describe species interactions in ecological processes.

There is a growing number of methods for describing and analysing the interaction
patterns between species in these networks. The most commonly used network-level
indices, such as connectance, degree distribution, nestedness, and modularity,
describe the diversity and organization of species interactions within the entire net-
work. These indices can provide insight into the rules underlying the organization of
ecological processes, but also about the robustness of ecological networks to changes
and perturbations. Species-level indices, such as centrality, dependence, species
strength, module roles, and different indices for species specialization, describe the
roles of species in the network and the importance of species, both for their direct
interaction partners and for the cohesion of the entire network. These indices can be
used to identify species with important roles which is useful for the conservation of
ecological processes. Both network-level and species-level indices are influenced
by various factors, such as species’ local abundances, traits, and phylogenetic
relationships, as well as environmental conditions.
3.1 Introduction
Ecological networks describe the interactions between species in different ecological

processes, such as predation and parasitism, competition and facilitation, or mutu-
alistic interactions like seed-dispersal and pollination. While—due to the complex-
ity of ecological networks and the lack of suitable quantitative methods—studies of
species interactions were until recently limited to the analysis of interactions
between species pairs or small subsets of networks, advances in the available
methods—often borrowed from physics and the social sciences—and increased
computational power now allow studying ecological networks in the context of
entire species communities (Bascompte and Jordano 2014).
D.M. Dehling (*)

Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_3
30 D.M. Dehling
Fig. 3.1 Ecological networks can be depicted as graphs (left-hand side) and matrices. Nodes are
shown as coloured symbols and can represent species or individuals of a species. Edges (i.e. interac-
tions) are shown as lines between nodes in graphs, and as black squares in the matrices. (a) Unipartite
network (simple food web). Species from three trophic levels are indicated by different colours,
edges are shown as arrows that go from the lower trophic level (prey) to the higher trophic level
(predator). In the matrix, entries in each column show the prey species per predator. (b) Simple bipar-
tite network. Blue circles and yellow squares show species from two trophic levels. In the matrix,
black squares indicate only the presence of an interaction, whereas in the graph, the width of the lines
indicate the interaction frequencies. (c) Strongly nested network. Species with a lower degree inter-
act with a subset of the species with which species with a higher degree interact. (d) Strongly
modular network. Species from two trophic levels interact in three distinct modules. Species within
a module interact exclusively with species from the same module
Networks are commonly depicted as graphs that consist of nodes and edges
(Fig. 3.1). In ecological networks, nodes usually represent species, while the edges
describe the relationships or links between the species in a given ecological process.
There are two main types of ecological networks. Unipartite networks show the
3 The Structure of Ecological Networks 31
relationships between all species that can (potentially) interact with each other both
across and within trophic levels, e.g. a food web between all predator and prey spe-
cies in a community (Fig. 3.1a). Bipartite networks show the relationships between
species from two distinct groups—often two trophic levels, e.g. mutualistic interac-
tions between animals and plants—but not between the species of the same group
(Fig. 3.1b). Both unipartite and bipartite networks can also be visualized by an
adjacency matrix (Fig. 3.1a, b) in which columns and rows represent interacting
species, and the matrix entries indicate the presence of an interaction (in unweighted,
binary networks) or the strength of the interaction (in weighted networks) between
two species. In addition, networks can be divided into directed and undirected net-
works, depending on the effect that species have on their interaction partners.
Unipartite networks are usually directed because they illustrate the flow of energy
in an ecosystem often across several trophic levels, and there is usually a clear direc-
tion of the effect. For instance, describing the negative effect of a species on another
as “A eats B, B eats C, etc.” is the same as describing the positive effect in the oppo-
site direction: “C is prey for B, B is prey for A.” Bipartite networks are undirected
networks because the effect of the interaction goes in both directions; in a mutualis-
tic pollination network, for instance, a plant has a positive effect on the animal by
providing a resource, and at the same time the animal has a positive effect on the
plant by serving as a pollinator.
Ecological networks present a simplified model of the actual ecological pro-
cesses with a trade-off between the feasibility of data collection and the level of
complexity. They are most commonly sampled either by direct observation of the
interaction (often with a focal species or a plot) or indirectly via clues, such as pol-
len deposited on the body of a pollinator or prey species found in the gut of a preda-
tor. The sampling method can affect the analyses. Bosch et al. (2009) showed that
focal plant observations lead to lower estimates for the number of interaction part-
ners per pollinator than when pollen was collected directly from pollinators. There
are limited ways to estimate the quality of the sampling, for instance, using richness
estimators to compare the number of species and interactions sampled with the
expected maximum numbers (e.g. Dehling et al. 2014; Falcão et al. 2016). When
analysing networks, one should keep in mind that all sampling methods, and hence
the subsequent analyses that depend on the quality of the sampled data, are subject
to different biases, as it is virtually impossible to sample all interactions between all
species in a network (Jordano 2016).
3.2 Indices to Describe the Topology of Ecological Networks
The simplest measures to describe an interaction network are the number of species
(S) and the number of links observed between the species (L). The ratio between the
two measures L/S is the linkage density (Bartomeus 2013) and provides an estimate
for the mean degree, i.e. the mean number of links per species in the network. This
is a coarse indicator for linkage patterns, as it does not inform about differences
32 D.M. Dehling
between species. Similarly, connectance describes the ratio between the total num-
ber of realized links in a network and the theoretical maximum number of possible
links (Jordano 1987). While in other fields of network science it is appropriate to
calculate the number of possible links simply by multiplying the number of species
in the network (in unipartite networks) or the number of species in the different
trophic levels (bipartite networks), in ecological networks it is unrealistic to assume
that all interactions are possible, and it was therefore proposed that connectance
should be calculated relative to the number of biologically possible interactions
(Jordano 2016). A different measure for the connectivity of a network is the diam-
eter, the number of steps that are necessary to connect each pair of species in the
network (Albert and Barabasi 2002). It is determined as the maximum value found
when measuring the shortest distance between any two species in the network and
provides an estimate for how quickly perturbations could spread through a
network.
The distribution of links between the species in the network can be analysed in
more detail via the degree distribution, which describes how often a species with a
certain number of interaction partners occurs in a network. In ecological networks,
this distribution usually has the form of a power-law or truncated power-law distri-
bution, which means that most species tend to have few interaction partners, whereas
only a small number of species—called hubs or supergeneralists—has many inter-
action partners (Jordano et al. 2003; Vázquez and Aizen 2004; Bascompte and
Jordano 2014). In mutualistic networks, the degree distribution seems to be similar
across ecosystems and independent of species composition (Jordano et al. 2003).
Furthermore, the maximum number of links per species tends to be limited due to
forbidden links, i.e. morphological or phenological mismatches that prevent an
interaction between two species (Jordano et al. 2003; Olesen et al. 2010). Despite
its simplicity, degree distribution has been used to identify keystone species—the
most influential species—in interaction networks (Solé and Montoya 2001; Dunne
et al. 2002).
In a further step, one can analyse the overlap in the interaction partners of low-
degree vs. high-degree species, which is described by the nestedness of a network.
The concept of nestedness was introduced in the field of Island Biogeography to
analyse overlap in species assemblages on islands (Patterson and Atmar 1986). It
was first applied to ecological networks by Bascompte et al. (2003), and it describes
the extent to which the interaction partners of one species present a subset of the
interaction partners of another species. A network is perfectly nested when species
with low degree interact with the same interaction partners with which high-degree
species interact, i.e. if all links of the lesser-connected species are nested within the
links of the species with a higher degree (Fig. 3.1c). Plant-animal networks tend to
be highly nested; low-degree species (also called specialists) interact with subsets
of the species with which high-degree species (generalists) interact. In bipartite
networks, this has an important implication as it leads to an asymmetry in the spe-
cialization of interaction partners; a core of generalist species interacts with both the
generalists and the specialists from the other trophic level, whereas the specialists
from each trophic level interact with the generalists from the other trophic level
(Fig. 3.1c). This asymmetry hence suggests that—contrary to expectation—mutual-

istic interaction networks do not always consist of reciprocally specialized pairwise
interactions (Bascompte et al. 2003; Vázquez and Aizen 2004; Joppa et al. 2009, but
see Dehling et al. 2016 for functional specialization). The nested structure of mutu-
alistic networks increases the stability of networks (Bastolla et al. 2009; Thébault
and Fontaine 2010) as it leads to a higher resistance to extinction for the well-
connected generalist species (Aizen et al. 2012), but at the same time increases the
endurance of the often rare specialist species (Bascompte et al. 2003). In addition,
it can reduce competition between species from the same trophic level (Bastolla
et al. 2009).
Another measure for the organization of species interactions in the network is
modularity (Fig. 3.1d). It describes the propensity of different subsets of species in
the network to interact more frequently with each other than with the rest of the spe-
cies in the network (Guimerà and Amaral 2005a, b; Thébault 2013). Depending on
the strength of this propensity, this can lead to a division of the network into distinct
compartments, or modules. A perfectly modular interaction network comprises sev-
eral sets of species that exclusively interact with each other (Fig. 3.1d). Such cases
are, however, rare in nature (if they exist at all), and most modular networks include
species that preferably interact with species from one module as well as species that
interact with species from different modules. There are different methods to define
modules in networks (e.g. Guimerà and Amaral 2005b; Barber 2007; Guimerà et al.
2007; Dormann and Strauß 2014). These methods aim to assign interacting species
pairs to modules in such a way that the number of interactions within modules is
maximized, and the number of interactions between modules is minimized. The
modularity of networks increases its robustness to disturbances because these ini-
tially only affect modules and are not easily spread to other modules (Stouffer and
Bascompte 2011). However, highly modular networks inevitably also show a lower
overall connectance, and hence lower overall redundancy which could arguably
lower the robustness against secondary extinctions.
The compartmentalization of networks led to the view of modules as functional
units or “basic building blocks of mutualistic networks” (Bascompte and Jordano
2014). Modularity has been related to phylogenetic relationships (Krasnov et al.
2012), climatic seasonality (Dalsgaard et al. 2013; Trøjelsgaard and Olesen 2013;
Schleuning et al. 2014), as well as pollination and dispersal syndromes, that is sets
of plant species that share a certain combination of traits that attract, e.g., a certain
set of pollinator species or a certain set of seed dispersers (Stebbins 1970).
Differences in the degree of modularity in mutualistic networks could be related to
different requirements of species in different ecological processes. For instance,
during pollination, a plant species might profit more if all individuals are visited by
a subset of specialized pollinators because this increases the chance that pollen is
transported between individuals of the same species (Pellmyr 2002), whereas dur-
ing seed-dispersal, it might be more advantageous for a plant to attract as many
potential dispersers as possible to increase the chance that one of its fruits is
deposited in a site that is favourable for the growth of new plant individual (Howe
1993). In a ddition, sampling of seed-dispersal networks is commonly restricted to
34 D.M. Dehling
one taxon, for instance birds, whereas pollination networks are usually sampled
across a wider range of taxa, for instance several insect orders, which makes it more
likely to include species pairs from different syndromes into the network. Not least,
the probability of finding modules increases with increasing size of the network
(Olesen et al. 2007); one of the most diverse seed-dispersal networks sampled to
date, collected by Donatti et al. (2011) in the Brazilian Pantanal across several ver-
tebrate taxa, was found to be highly modular, and modules could be related to the
different animal taxa (one module each for fish, birds, and tortoises, another module
included mammals and large terrestrial birds). Analyses of modularity should hence
be interpreted with care if they involve small networks and/or are focussed on only
a distinct subset of species because those networks likely represent only a module
of a larger network.
3.3 Indices to Describe the Roles of Individual Species
There are several measures to assess the role and possible importance of a species in a
network. As was introduced above, the simplest measure to describe how a species is
connected with other species in the network is its degree, the number of interaction
partners (Freeman 1977). In directed networks, such as food webs, degree can be divided
into in-degree (e.g. the number of prey species) and out-degree (the number of predators
of a species), whereas in undirected networks, for instance bipartite mutualistic net-
works, it is not possible to differentiate between the two because a species can only be
resource or consumer. Degree is one measure for the centrality of a species, i.e. its influ-
ence on other species in the network (Freeman 1977). The higher the degree of a species,
the more potential influence it has on other species in the network.
In quantitative networks, the importance of one species for another can be calcu-
lated as dependence: the number of interaction events between a species and one of
its interaction partners relative to the number of interaction events between that
species and all of its interaction partners (Jordano 1987; Bascompte et al. 2006).
The dependence between two species is often asymmetric; if a species depends
strongly on a certain interaction partner, the interaction partner usually does not
depend much on that species (Bascompte et al. 2006). While dependence is a mea-
sure for a species’ importance for one other species, the importance of a species for
the entire network can be expressed as species strength, i.e. the sum of the depen-
dencies of all interaction partners on that species (Barrat et al. 2004).
While degree, dependence, and strength are all (largely) based on a species’
direct interaction partners, other measures of centrality also consider how a species
is embedded in the interactions between all species in the network (Jordán et al.
2007). For example, betweenness centrality (Freeman 1977) assesses for each spe-
cies how often it occurs in a connection between every pair of species. Closeness
centrality (Freeman 1978) measures the shortest connections between a species and
every other species in the network. As already mentioned for degree distribution
above, centrality measures can be used to identify keystone species in networks
(Jordán et al. 2006; Mello et al. 2015).
Fig. 3.2 Module roles of species in a simple bipartite network with two modules. Roles are
shown for the upper trophic level (blue circles). The z-score describes whether a species has a
lower (low z) or higher-than-average (high z) number of interaction partners in a module. The
participation coefficient (PC) describes the degree to which a species only interacts with species
from one module (low PC) or with species across all modules (high PC). The table shows the
combinations of z-score and participation coefficient that describe the different module roles of
species in the network
Centrality measures can also serve to identify species with different roles in
modular networks (Fig. 3.2). Based on a z-score that assesses whether a species has
a higher or lower-than-average number of links within a module (i.e. its in-module
degree), Guimerà and Amaral (2005a) identified species that serve as hubs (high
z-score) in the network. Together with the participation coefficient (PC) which
ranges from 0 (if a species only interacts with species from one module) to 1 (if a
species has links evenly spread across all modules), hubs can be divided into mod-
ule hubs (high z, low PC) and network hubs (high z, high PC), both of which are
important for the cohesion and robustness of the network (Guimerà and Amaral
2005a; Olesen et al. 2007). Species with low z/low PC are considered peripheral
species that neither connect strongly with a module nor serve as module connectors,
whereas species low z/high PC serve as connectors between modules and are there-
fore also important for the cohesion of the network (Guimerà and Amaral 2005a;
Olesen et al. 2007). The module roles of species tend to be phylogenetically conserved
(Poulin et al. 2013; Schleuning et al. 2014).
Species can be separated into specialists and generalists according to their interaction
patterns. In the simplest way, the classification is based on the number of interaction
partners because this arguably provides a measure for the range of resources used
and, hence, the possible size of a species’ niche. Accordingly, low-degree species
are considered specialists, and high-degree species are considered generalists.
36 D.M. Dehling
From early on, this terminology has been criticized because it can be misleading.
Networks are usually sampling the resource use in only one ecological process, and
it is not uncommon to find that network ‘specialists’ are in fact omnivores that oppor-
tunistically participate in the process sampled in the network, whereas true resource
specialists tend to be the network ‘generalists’ (see also Dalsgaard et al. 2017).
Degree does not provide information regarding the niche overlap, and hence the pos-
sible redundancy or complementarity of species (Blüthgen and Klein 2011). Blüthgen
et al. (2006) therefore proposed a standardized specialization index, d′ (‘d prime’),
which assesses the specialization of a species (ranging from 0 to 1) by comparing
the realized links between a species and its interaction partners to the link pattern
expected based on the abundances of all available interaction partners (measured
from occurrence frequencies in the network, not from external abundances). A
species that exclusively interacts with an abundant species has a lower d′ value and
is hence less specialized than a species that exclusively interacts with a rare species.
On the network level, d′ is extended by the complementary specialization index,
H 2′ (Blüthgen et al. 2006), which relates the observed interaction frequencies
between species to the interaction frequencies expected based on species abundances
(i.e. occurrence frequencies), and presents a measure for the complementarity of
species’ interaction patterns.
The specialization indices presented above are based on species numbers and
identities but do not take into account the similarity between species’ interaction
partners, such as their morphology and chemical contents, which is relevant to
describe species’ niche differences and their different roles in the network. Dehling
et al. (2016) determined the specialization of species’ roles as the differences in the
functional traits of species’ interaction partners. This approach to measuring spe-
cialization is based on differences in species’ functional roles and the concept of the
Eltonian niche (Elton 1927; Dehling et al. 2016), and it has the advantage that it is
independent of species identities. Differences between species are expressed as
functional originality—the degree to which the traits of a species’ interaction part-
ners differ from the traits of the interaction partners of all other species—and func-
tional uniqueness—the degree to which the traits of a species’ interaction partners
differ from the traits of the interaction partners of the functionally most similar
species (Dehling et al. 2016). Even though functional originality and uniqueness are
determined relative to other species and the range of available resource can change
seasonally, the functional specialization of species is similar throughout the year
(Bender et al. 2017).
3.4 F
actors That Influence the Structure of Ecological
Networks
Different interacting factors might underly the structure of ecological networks and
the interactions between species. Several studies addressed the question of whether
interactions between species occur at random (or according to species’ abundances,
Fig. 3.3 Factors that influence the structure of ecological networks. (a) Influence of local abundance
(indicated by the size of the symbols) on species interactions in two bipartite networks. In the
network on the left, species with high local abundance have a higher number of interaction part-
ners; in the network on the right, the number of interaction partners is independent of species’ local
abundance. (b) Influence of phylogenetic relationships on species interactions. In the network on
the left, closely related species have similar interaction partners; in the network on the right, inter-
action patterns are independent of species’ phylogenetic relationships
Fig. 3.3a) or whether they are determined by ecological factors. Abundance can
influence network structure and the interactions between species (Jordano 1987;
Jordano et al. 2003; Vázquez and Aizen 2004, but see Blüthgen et al. 2006; Stang
et al. 2006; Krishna et al. 2008; Vázquez et al. 2009) but there is also strong support
for the influence of species traits in determining species interactions and especially
their role in determining “forbidden links” (Jordano et al. 2003; Olesen et al. 2010).
Forbidden links are constraints that prevent some species from interacting with each
other (Jordano et al. 2003), for instance due to differences in species’ phenology
(Olesen et al. 2010), or size mismatches between the resource and consumer species
(Jordano et al. 2003; Stang et al. 2006). These forbidden links can make up a large
percentage of all the theoretically possible links in a network (Jordano et al. 2003;
Olesen et al. 2010), but the challenge is to tell apart forbidden links from
38 D.M. Dehling
unobserved links, especially in under-sampled networks (Jordano 2016). Controlling

for independently sampled local species abundances (instead of the common prac-
tice of using network occurrences as proxies for local abundances), Vizentin-Bugoni
et al. (2014) showed that the influence of forbidden links is much stronger than that
of abundance.
Current studies on the influence of species traits on species interactions focus on
the identification of matching traits in interaction partners (Stang et al. 2009; Eklöf
et al. 2013; Junker et al. 2013; Dehling et al. 2014; Maglianesi et al. 2014; Morales-
Castilla et al. 2015; Bartomeus et al. 2016) and the relationship between functional
traits and functional roles (Eklöf et al. 2013; Dehling et al. 2016; Bartomeus et al.
2016). Single traits can sometimes be used to explain interactions between species,
for instance in food webs where body mass alone can often to a large extent deter-
mine species’ positions in the food web (Williams and Martinez 2000; Petchey et al.
2008; Stouffer et al. 2011). However, in most networks a larger number of traits is
necessary to explain all interactions (Eklöf et al. 2013). So far, the insights from trait
relationships are not sufficient to predict species interactions from traits alone,
which would be extremely valuable, for instance for assessing the potential of spe-
cies to form new interactions in species assemblages with altered species composi-
tion due to disturbances or range shifts. However, the methodology in this field is
developing rapidly with many promising approaches (e.g. Morales-Castilla et al.
2015; Bartomeus et al. 2016; Dehling et al. 2016).
Network structure can also be influenced by phylogeny (Cattin et al. 2004;
Rezende et al. 2007; Peralta et al. 2015) (Fig. 3.3b). However, when studying phy-
logenetic signal in ecological networks, an important question is always whether
the signal is due to ecological events in the past and the subsequent conservation of
the resulting interaction patterns in species’ phylogenies, or whether current eco-
logical factors determine interactions and a phylogenetic signal is found because
closely related species have similar ecologies and traits (Thompson 2005; Vázquez
et al. 2009). For instance, nestedness could be influenced by species’ phylogeny
(Rezende et al. 2007), or mostly result from trait complementarity and trait conver-
gence (Thompson 2006). Similarly, while modules often contain phylogenetically
closely related species (Dupont and Olesen 2009; Donatti et al. 2011; Mello et al.
2011; Poulin et al. 2013), species in modules also tend to have similar traits (Corbet
2000; Donatti et al. 2011; Montoya et al. 2015). In a study across 18 seed-dispersal
networks (Schleuning et al. 2014), modularity was only weakly related to phylog-
eny and best predicted by climatic seasonality. Module roles of species, however,
tend to be phylogenetically conserved (Schleuning et al. 2014; Nogales et al.
2015). Related to that, phylogenetically closely related species in mutualistic net-
works tend to have similar degree values, but differ in their interaction strength
(Rezende et al. 2007). The disentangling of the influence of phylogeny and other
ecological factors, especially species traits, on species interactions and the question
how phylogeny can be used as proxy for ecological factors, is an exciting field for
future research.
3.5 Conclusions
In this chapter, I presented several indices for the analysis of ecological network
(please also see Chap. 13). As discussed above, some of these indices are easier to
interpret regarding their biological meaning than others. Network indices should
therefore always be chosen according to their relevance for the particular research
question because without an ecological meaning all of these indices are of little use.
Ecological networks are usually limited in space, time, and with respect to the eco-
logical processes and the species group studied, and they are sensitive to sampling
effort and biases in the sampling methods. Nevertheless, keeping in mind these
shortcomings, ecological networks can be powerful tools to study the mechanisms
underlying ecological processes.
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Chapter 4
Ecology and Evolution of Species-Rich
Interaction Networks
Rafael Luís Galdini Raimundo, Flavia Maria Darcie Marquitti,
Cecilia Siliansky de Andreazzi, Mathias Mistretta Pires,
and Paulo Roberto Guimarães Jr
Abstract The perception that the complexity of tropical ecological interactions is

both a product of evolutionary processes and a feedstock for evolution lies at the
origin of Evolutionary Ecology. We now have the opportunity to revisit this foun-
dational perception to gain insight into the processes shaping biodiversity struc-
ture and ecosystem functioning. Such an opportunity arises from the ongoing
theoretical integration between ecological and evolutionary theories, alongside
with the application of the network approach to characterize the structure and
dynamics of multi-species communities. In this chapter, we focus on the funda-
mental aspects of ecological, evolutionary, and eco-evolutionary theories underly-
ing the network approach to the study of multi-species systems, such as
megadiverse tropical communities. Together, these perspectives illustrate the
challenges we shall face in the decades to come in order to take advantage of
ongoing theoretical integration, the gradual accumulation of data on tropical
interactions, and the availability of robust analytical and computational tools to
enlighten the processes shaping biodiversity.
R.L.G. Raimundo (*)

Departamento de Engenharia e Meio Ambiente and Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia
e Monitoramento Ambiental, Centro de Ciências Aplicadas e Educação, Universidade Federal
da Paraíba, Rio Tinto, PB, Brazil
Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo,
São Paulo, SP, Brazil
F.M.D. Marquitti
Departamento de Física da Matéria Condensada, Instituto de Física “Gleb Wataghin”,
Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil
C.S. de Andreazzi
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
M.M. Pires • P.R. Guimarães Jr
Departamento de Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade de São Paulo,
São Paulo, SP, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_4
44 R.L.G. Raimundo et al.
4.1 Introduction
Tropical ecological interactions provided empirical foundations for evolutionary

theory (Darwin and Wallace 1858) and for the first mathematical approaches to
evolutionary ecology (Müller 1879). During the 1700s and 1800s, naturalists unrav-
eled novel interaction types across the tropics. That age of discoveries inspired the
pioneers of biodiversity research to identify general questions regarding the origin
and persistence of species-rich assemblages. For instance, Darwin (1859) forged the
analogy of the “entangled bank,” synthesizing the insight that universal processes
shape biodiversity in every single site on Earth. Indeed, the concluding sentences of
the Origins (Darwin 1859) compare the role of evolution as a driver of biodiversity
to the law of gravity in Physics:
“… Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object of which
we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals directly follows.
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on
according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beauti-
ful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
More than 150 years later, understanding general mechanisms whereby ecologi-

cal interactions and evolution feedback with each other to drive biodiversity remains
as a major scientific problem (Thompson 2009; Losos et al. 2013). For decades, the
paradigm that ecological and evolutionary processes occur at different timescales
(Hutchinson 1965) supported theoretical development, but constrained integrative
approaches to biodiversity dynamics (Thompson 1998, 2013). Recently, theory and
growing evidence converged to support the view that ecological interactions are
both the product and a driving force of selection, implying that adaptive evolution
and ecological processes reciprocally affect each other across levels of biological
organization (Urban and Skelly 2006; Grant and Grant 2014; Koch et al. 2014).
Rapid evolution refers to genetic changes that are fast enough to influence eco-
logical processes (Hairston et al. 2005). As rapid evolution pervades taxa and
biomes (Carroll et al. 2007; Ellner et al. 2011), it is a candidate mechanism to
explain biodiversity patterns (Thompson 1998; Koch et al. 2014). The extent to
which eco-evolutionary dynamics influence species-rich assemblages is an open
issue (Fussmann et al. 2007; Strauss 2014). Evolution of ecologically relevant traits,
such as plant flowering time (Franks et al. 2007) or floral display (Gómez et al.
2009), can change interaction patterns and species abundances. In turn, ecological
changes can redefine selective regimes and trigger eco-evolutionary feedbacks (Post
and Palkovacs 2009). In this scenario, the network approach to species interactions
appears as a promising tool to investigate the ecological and evolutionary dynamics
of multi-species communities.
Variation in network structure relates to natural history attributes of ecological
interactions. For example, biological intimacy, the degree of physiological depen-
dence and phenotypic integration between interacting individuals (see Ollerton
2006; Guimarães et al. 2016) correlates to network structure in mutualisms and
4 Ecology and Evolution of Species-Rich Interaction Networks 45
antagonisms (Fontaine et al. 2011). The following examples illustrate the relation-
ship between biological intimacy and network structure in mutualisms (Guimarães
et al. 2007), but similar patterns hold for antagonisms, such as parasite–host and
predator–prey interactions (Fontaine et al. 2011; Pires and Guimarães 2013).
In high-intimacy mutualisms, individuals are highly dependent on interactions,
which occur with one or a few interspecific individuals (Fonseca and Ganade 1996).
High-intimacy mutualistic networks are strongly modular, i.e., they form clusters of
species more connected among themselves than with the rest of the network (Olesen
et al. 2007), as interactions occur between myrmecophytes and ants (Fonseca and
Ganade 1996) and between seed parasites and their host plants (Hembry 2012).
Conversely, in low-intimacy mutualisms, species interact with several partners
without depending on particular mutualist individuals. Low-intimacy networks are
usually nested, such as in networks formed by plants and ants visiting extrafloral
nectaries (Dáttilo et al. 2014a, b) and by pollinators and flowering plants (Bascompte
et al. 2003). In nested networks, generalist species (i.e., those with the most interac-
tions) form an interaction core, whereas specialist species (i.e., those with fewer
interactions) are peripheral and interact mostly with generalists (Bascompte et al.
2003).
Data scarcity constrains the understanding of how network structure influences
ecological and evolutionary dynamics in tropical communities. However, novel
molecular technologies will soon provide information on ecological networks in
unprecedented ways (Evans et al. 2016). To take advantage of increasing data avail-
ability in the decades to come, we can benefit from a number of theoretical and
methodological frameworks aimed to unravel the dynamics of large networks. As a
contribution in this sense, we here discuss current network approaches to ecologi-
cal, evolutionary, and eco-evolutionary dynamics of multi-species communities,
such as those recurrently found in the tropics.
4.2 Ecological Dynamics
The two fundamental questions of network studies are (1) how ecological and evo-
lutionary processes organize the interaction structure of communities and (2) how
network structure shapes ecological dynamics and ecosystem functioning (Dunne
2006)? Ecological dynamics refers to disparate aspects of community functioning,
including rates of energy or biomass flow, effectiveness of ecosystem functions, and
variations in species composition and populations abundances over time. Theoretical
population ecology has shown that pairwise species interactions affect species
abundances in multiple ways (Lotka 1920; Volterra 1926; Gause 1932). Even inter-
actions within a single population can generate complex dynamics, such as chaotic
behavior (May 1973). Therefore, it is not a surprise that an enormous suite of
dynamics, often characterized by multiple alternative stable states (Kang and
Wedekin 2013), challenges our ability to predict how species abundances vary in
species-rich networks.
Differential equations are often used to explore the ecological dynamics of multi-
specific networks (May 1973; Allesina and Tang 2012). Modeling a species-rich
networks with S species requires an S-dimensional system of differential equations
(Box 4.1). Each equation has p parameters that quantify rates of population increase,
per capita interaction rates, and carrying capacities. For the entire community, there
are pS parameters whose values and ranges are often unknown. Yodzis and Innes
(1992) proposed a parameterization of dynamical models based on energetics and
empirical allometries, exploring the dynamics emerging over a range of resource–
consumer body mass ratios. Similar models, generalized to S species, explored how
body size structure and phenotypic evolution affect community dynamics (Weitz
and Levin 2006). These models can help us to understand ecological dynamics in
tropical networks since the complexity of tropical interactions frequently hamper
experimental and even observational studies.
In a similar way, theoretical studies on community stability (Box 4.1) can explore
relationships between network structure and ecological dynamics, including the
role of weak interactions (McCann et al. 1998), how topologies and interaction
types influence stability (Thébault and Fontaine 2010; Allesina and Tang 2012),
conditions for species coexistence under alternative topologies (Rohr et al. 2014),
and effects of evolution on ecological dynamics (Loeuille 2010). Contrasting model
assumptions constrain the generality of insights arising from stability analyses.
Some models support that higher connectance and nestedness increase community
persistence by minimizing co-extinctions (Thébault and Fontaine 2010) and inter-
specific competition (Bastolla et al. 2009). However, decreases in stability have also
been attributed to nestedness (Allesina and Tang 2012; Suweis et al. 2013). Similarly,
modularity and low connectance may increase stability by constraining the spread
of perturbations (Kolchinsky et al. 2015), but may also increase the likelihood of
co-extinctions (Dáttilo 2012). Generalized models are an alternative to investigate
species-rich networks under variable assumptions, for example, by modeling their
dynamics under different functional responses (Yeakel et al. 2011).
Box 4.1 Stability Analysis 

In analyses of dynamic behavior, the equation f represents the rate of density
change in each one of the m species forming the multi-specific system M. The
system stability informs the ability of M to recover from small perturbations
that impose changes in species densities. Early studies on the stability of
species-rich systems (May 1973) established theoretical expectations for the
relationship between species richness, complexity (connectance), and stabil-
ity. Qualitative stability analyses rely on the eigenvalues of the linearized sys-
tem, i.e., the Jacobian Matrix of the system at the equilibrium x∗ (also known
as the community matrix). The Jacobian is the matrix of all first-order partial
derivatives of the functions that define the system. When the Jacobian matrix

JM is evaluated at equilibrium x ∗ ( J M |x∗ , i.e., at the point at which the system
does not change over time) the real parts of its eigenvalues inform how the
system should respond to small perturbations. If all real parts of the eigenval-
ues are negative, the system is stable and should return to the original equilib-
rium following a perturbation. On the other hand, if one or more eigenvalues
have positive real part(s), the system is unstable and perturbations should
drive the system away from the equilibrium and, probably, to another
equilibrium.
Equations of the dynamical

system  f1 ( x1 ,…,xn ) 
 
M=  
 fm ( x1 ,…,xn ) 
 
Jacobian matrix
 ∂f1 ( x1 ,…,xn ) ∂f1 ( x1 ,…,xn ) 
 … 
 ∂x1 ∂xn 
JM =  
 
 ∂fm ( x1 ,…,xn ) ∂fm ( x1 ,…,xn ) 
 … 
 ∂x1 ∂xn 
Community matrix  ∂f1 ( x1 ,…, xn ) ∂f1 ( x1 ,…, xn ) 
 … 
 ∂x1 ∂xn 
J M |x∗ =  
 
 ∂fm ( x1 ,…, xn ) ∂fm ( x1 ,…, xn ) 
 … 
 ∂x1 ∂xn  x∗
Network models capturing ecological dynamics can support the conservation of

tropical communities. For example, network approaches can identify which species
we should track abundances to detect the collapse of communities (Pires et al. 2017)
or whether ecological restoration improves resilience (Kaiser-Bunbury et al. 2017).
Simulations suggest that different network types, including food webs and bipartite
mutualistic networks, are robust to random extinctions, but fragile to extinctions of
highly connected species (Dunne et al. 2002; Memmott et al. 2004) (Fig. 4.1). The
loss of highly connected species is harmful to network structure even if models
incorporate interaction rewiring (see Sect. 4.3 for details), which improves overall
network resilience (Kaiser-Bunbury et al. 2010). Network theory can also support
conservation by unraveling drivers of ecological dynamics, including the combina-
tion of interaction types, such as mutualisms and antagonisms (Mougi and Kondoh
2012), the distributions of interaction strengths (Grilli et al. 2016), and spatial
Fig. 4.1 Nodes represent species and links show interspecific interactions. If a species is attacked
and lost (extinction), as in the case of the red node, other species interacting only with the attacked
node can also be lost. Robust networks are less susceptible to primary and secondary losses after a
species dies out
p rocesses (Gravel et al. 2016; Lurgi et al. 2016). Despite these exciting perspectives
to bridge network theory and conservation, we still are in the early stages of under-
standing how interaction structure shape the dynamics of multi-specific systems and
how these dynamical properties feed evolutionary patterns.
4.3 Evolutionary Dynamics
Any organism is embedded within a variety of intra- and interspecific interactions

that impose diverse and often conflicting selection on ecological traits (Schoener
2011; Strauss 2014). The outcomes of directional trait evolution that would result
from each pairwise interaction alone are thus expected to change according to net-
work structure (Thompson 2013). Deepening our knowledge on the evolutionary
dynamics of multi-species networks thus requires that we understand not only how
selection shapes ecological traits that define local interaction structures (Siepielski
and Benkman 2009), but also how adaptive changes in interaction patterns reshape
the structure of selection (Thompson 2005; Haloin and Strauss 2008).
To understand trait evolution in multi-species networks, we can depart from evo-
lutionary dynamics in pairwise interactions (Box 4.2). Pairwise interaction models
predict contrasting evolutionary dynamics for mutualisms and antagonisms.
Selection favors trait matching enhancing mutualism effectiveness, such as in inter-
actions between long-tongued animals and long-tubed flowers (Sazatornil et al.
2016) because mutualists showing higher phenotypic complementarity in relation to
their partners acquire greater benefits (Box 4.2). Contrasting to mutualisms, trait
mismatches are fundamental adaptive responses for organisms exploited or con-
sumed by antagonist species. In seed predation by weevils, for example, the differ-
ence between the seed thickness and the beetle’s rostrum length allow plants to
escape from weevils, but trait matching between seeds and weevils positively cor-
relates with the weevil success (Toju and Sota 2006).
Box 4.2 Trait Evolution Models

Effects of traits on a pairwise interaction can be expressed by mathematical
functions. In this case, one can assume that zi and zj represent a continuous
trait for species i and j. These traits express how the interaction between indi-
viduals of the different species affects their fitness. In the equations below, α
modulates the sensitivity of interaction to the difference between species
traits.
( )
f ( zi ,z j ) = e
2
Matching −α zi − z j
(similarity):
1
Mismatching f ( zi ,z j ) =
(difference): (
−α zi − z j )
1+ e
When the interaction with all possible j partners is coupled with environ-
mental effects, we can express the average fitness Wi of individuals of a given
species i:
Wi ( zi ,z j ) = e ∑ f ( z ,z ) ,
− γ i ( zi −θi )
2
i j
j

where θi is the optimum trait favored by the abiotic environment and γi modu-
lates the sensitivity of such abiotic optimum (Nuismer et al. 2010). Using
quantitative genetic approaches, we may express how the trait changes (∆zi)
depending on the genetic additive variance, Gi, and on interactions with other
species and the environmental pressure included in the fitness (Wi) (Lush
1943; Lande 1976) using the notion of selection gradients:
1 ∂Wi
∆zi = Gi
Wi ∂zi

A first step to gain insight into evolutionary dynamics beyond pairwise interac-
tions is to relate the structure and strength of selection shaping ecological traits to
the emergence of network patterns. For example, theory suggests that: (1) reciprocal
specialization arising from coevolutionary selection favoring trait matching can
split an initially generalized mutualistic network into several compartments, each of
which with variable species richness and, conversely, (2) when phenotype differ-
ences drive ecological interactions, coevolution is expected to reshape interaction
patterns in a way that nested structures become more generalized architectures in
which specialists are rare (Nuismer et al. 2013). Recent theoretical work on antago-
nistic networks suggests that modularity emerges if selection is stronger on exploit-
ers, such as parasites or predators, whereas nestedness will arise if selection is
stronger on hosts (Andreazzi et al. 2017). Network structures are not static, but will
often change as a consequence of diverse adaptive processes can that reshape inter-
action patterns over time.
Adaptive changes in network structure can occur when natural selection
favors the rewiring of interactions (Suweis et al. 2013). A diversity of biological
mechanisms underlies the adaptive rewiring of ecological interactions. For
example, high- and low-intimacy mutualisms show strong variation in the
dependence, liability, and specificity of interactions (Bronstein 2009), which in
turn affect the patterns of selection in these ecological interactions (Fonseca and
Ganade 1996). In low-intimacy mutualisms, interaction switches seldom require
further morphological, physiological, or behavioral adaptations (Bascompte
and Jordano 2014). Indeed, rewiring events related to adaptive resource tracking
(Agosta and Klemens 2008) commonly occur at ecological timescales in these
systems (Olesen et al. 2008; Díaz-Castelazo et al. 2013). On the other hand,
rewiring is expected to be less frequent in specialized, high-intimacy mutual-
isms (Cook and Rasplus 2003) because coevolution shapes complex phenotypes
that mediate these interactions, filtering out potential partners (Thompson
2005). The recurrence of phylogenetic constraints on interaction rewiring has
been invoked to explain the modularity of high-intimacy mutualistic networks
(Fonseca and Ganade 1996).
Another major cause of adaptive changes in network structure is the addition
of new species to a community (Abrams 1996), which can have strong conse-
quences for network structure (Russo et al. 2014). The addition of new species
to local biotas, either via cladogenesis or biological invasions, reorganize net-
work structure because these new species change costs and benefits of interac-
tions for multiple co-occurring species. Such changes in interaction payoffs are
expected to lead to the reorganization of biotic dimensions of ecological niches
over time. The reorganization of ecological interactions arising from species
additions affects both ecological and evolutionary processes, as it has conse-
quences for per capita growth rates as well as for trait evolution across the com-
munity (Abrams 1996).
4.4 Eco-evolutionary Dynamics
By creating feedback loops between ecological and evolutionary processes, rapid

evolution can trigger eco-evolutionary dynamics (Fussmann et al. 2007; Post and
Palkovacs 2009). For instance, evolution of body and beak sizes feedback has been
shown to contribute with population growth in a population of Darwin’s finches
(Hairston et al. 2005). In the same population, changes in ecological conditions
impacted interaction patterns and the strength, direction, and outcomes of selection
(Grant and Grant 2002). Darwin finches illustrate the extent to which ecological and
evolutionary dynamics are intertwined (Schoener 2011). Knowledge on eco-
evolutionary dynamics can benefit from complementary research frameworks
(Abrams 2005), particularly as we change the focus from systems comprising a few
species to species-rich communities, in which effects often propagate in indirect
and unexpected ways (Strauss 2014).
Three common approaches to model eco-evolutionary dynamics (Fussmann
et al. 2007) include: (1) single-locus genetic models in which genotypic fitness is
used to compute mean population fitness as a proxy for the population growth rate;
(2) multiple-loci genetic models in which quantitative models describe the evolu-
tion of a continuous trait affecting population dynamics, which is under selection
and modeled as a function proportional to the fitness gradient and; (3) adaptive
dynamic models, in which the trait value characterizes individuals of a population,
but mutants bearing alleles that enhance fitness may invade that population and
affect the equilibrium of ecological dynamics, closing the feedback loop
(Dieckmann and Law 1996). Adaptive dynamics works suggest that the interplay
between the evolution of interactions and population dynamics may be a key mech-
anism driving ecological networks (Pacheco et al. 2006; McQuaid and Britton
2013). However, understanding how eco-evolutionary processes feedback with
network structure under diverse topologies remains an open question. Therefore,
network-based approaches addressing the interplay among trait evolution, interac-
tion rewiring, and demography within species-rich networks can help us to explore
this major research frontier.
Adaptive networks represent a promising tool that has been used to model trait-
interaction-abundance feedbacks that drive long-term community dynamics (Poisot
et al. 2015). Adaptive ecological networks can be defined as dynamic graphs in
which changes in interaction structure feedback with species properties, such as
traits and abundances (Gross and Blasius 2008). In simulations that depart from
random networks, natural selection favoring interaction switches that maximize
species abundances lead to the emergence of nested structures similar to the archi-
tecture of empirical mutualistic networks (Suweis et al. 2013). The strength of the
adaptive network approach is founded on the integrative investigation of trait- and
abundance-based processes in the course of network assembly. Adaptive network
models can easily incorporate biological constraints on interactions, which may
play a key role in tropical networks (Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2014). Such constraints
refer to morphological, behavioral, or phenological traits that impose restrictions to
interactions, leading to “forbidden links” that cannot occur due to biological incom-
patibilities between species (Jordano et al. 2003; Olesen et al. 2011).
Eco-evolutionary dynamics may have pervasive effects on the structure and
dynamics of natural communities (Strauss 2014; Hendry 2016). Community com-
position rapidly responds to evolution, as shown by changes in arthropod diversity
and abundances after experimental selection on plant biomass, life history, and
resistance to herbivory (Johnson and Agrawal 2005). Adaptive evolution will often
change interaction structure and interaction strengths, affecting per capita growth
rates of multiple species (Post and Palkovacs 2009; Abrams 2010; Becks et al.
2010). For this reason, network models that incorporate eco-evolutionary dynam-
ics are promising tools to enlighten mechanisms subjacent to the dynamical prop-
erties of ecological communities (Suweis et al. 2013; Valdovinos et al. 2010;
Andreazzi et al. 2017).
Eco-evolutionary feedbacks that lead to the stability of traits and population den-
sities are known as cryptic eco-evolutionary dynamics (Kinnison et al. 2015). Such
cryptic dynamics may explain why species-rich communities are more resilient to
perturbations (Strauss 2014). The dynamical outcomes of eco-evolutionary feed-
backs vary with the type of ecological interaction considered. Evolution often stabi-
lizes antagonistic consumer–resource interactions, such as predator–prey,
herbivore–plant, and parasite–host (Fussmann et al. 2007; Strauss 2014; Hendry
2016), particularly when consumers switch among alternative resources (Yamauchi
and Yamamura 2005; Valdovinos et al. 2016). In competitive interactions, eco-
evolutionary feedbacks may favor ecological character displacement, drive evolu-
tionary divergence in resource, and promote coexistence (Vasseur and Fox 2011;
Pfennig and Pfennig 2012; Abrams and Cortez 2015). Alternatively, evolutionary
convergence in resource use may arise from competitive interactions, especially if
resources are non-replaceable (Fox and Vasseur 2008; Vasseur and Fox 2011;
Abrams and Cortez 2015). Coexistence among competing species may also be
maintained by negative frequency-dependent selection associated to cycles (Vasseur
et al. 2011). Model mutualistic networks that incorporate drift, dispersal limitation,
and forbidden links suggest that trait convergence and complementarity can emerge
from the interplay between fundamental genetic and ecological processes (Encinas-
Viso et al. 2014). Eco-evolutionary dynamics of mutualisms may also be affected by
cheaters, which are species whose individuals take advantage of mutualist species
without providing any type of return (Jones et al. 2009).
The combination of eco-evolutionary theory and network models open exciting
perspectives for future studies addressing fundamental question on the processes
that shape community structure, including: the joint action of neutral and trait-based
mechanisms as drivers of network structure (Vázquez et al. 2009), population, and
community-level consequences of species additions and deletions (Abrams 1996;
Valdovinos et al. 2009; Russo et al. 2014), the roles of competition in mutualistic
assemblages (Jones et al. 2012; Dáttilo et al. 2014a, b), the multiple mechanisms by
which species rewire their interactions (Ramos-Jiliberto et al. 2012), and the dynam-
ics of networks encompassing several types of interactions (Fontaine et al. 2011;
Dáttilo et al. 2016).
4.5 T
he Challenge Ahead: Eco-evolutionary Dynamics
in Tropical, Species-Rich Networks
The challenge ahead for the evolutionary ecologists interested in tropical networks
is to test predictions of eco-evolutionary theory with empirical work. Recent empir-
ical findings on rapid evolution in tropical systems provide a first step in this direc-
tion. For example, in Atlantic Forest fragments where large-gaped birds (Fig. 4.2)
have been absent for several decades, the palm Euterpe edulis now show smaller
seed sizes. The fruits of this palm are key resources for frugivores (Galetti et al.
2013). Small seed sizes lead to changes in plant population structure via differential
recruitment (Moles et al. 2005) and may also affect interactions. For instance,
smaller seeds of E. edulis are subject to higher seedling mortality under drier condi-
tions and also generate smaller seedlings (Galetti et al. 2013). By changing popula-
tion structure and dynamics, these demographic consequences of rapid evolution
may reshape local selective regimes, completing the eco-evolutionary loop (Hendry
2016). Eco-evolutionary effects have the potential to spread via species interactions
and influence community organization and dynamics (Barraclough 2015). For
example, because E. edulis provides resources for multiple animal species and
because the loss of large seed dispersers may affect multiple plant species (Hansen
and Galetti 2009), the evolution of smaller seed sizes could generate community-
level changes in morphological or behavioral attributes of seed dispersers, which in
turn may reshape abundance and interaction patterns (Abrams 1996; Poisot et al.
2015). In addition, spatial variation in biotic interactions can lead to divergent
Fig. 4.2 (a) Individual of the palm tree Euterpe edulis, whose fruits are key resources for frugivo-
res in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. (b) The green-billed toucan, Ramphastos dicolorous, has a
large-gape beak, which allows it to disperse larger seeds of E. edulis at the Brazilian Atlantic
Forest. Photos: M. M. Pires
natural selection and drive genetic and species-level diversification between popula-
tions (Nosil 2012). Therefore, allopatric divergence of seed sizes of E. edulis
between Atlantic Forest fragments with and without large-bodied frugivores can
increase in the future. We used this example to explore the potential that the con-
tinuous, reciprocal feedback between rapid evolution and ecological dynamics has
to drive ecological networks. It is reasonable to expect that such eco-evolutionary
effects will also have consequences at the meta-community because they are likely
to change the structure of selection mosaics that shape the diversification of traits
and species (see Thompson 2005). However, the extent to which eco-evolutionary
effects in species-rich communities and meta-communities are predictable, and thus
useful to support theory and applications, remains to be understood.
Acknowledgements The São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP) supported RLGR
(grant #2014/21106-4), MMP (grant #2013/22016-6), FMDM (grants 2015/11985-3 and
#2016/00635-4), and PRGJr (grant #2009/54422-8). RLGR was also supported by CAPES/
Brazilian Ministry of Education and PRGJr was also supported by CNPq/Brazilian Ministry of
Science, Technology, and Innovation.
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Chapter 5
The Complex Ant–Plant Relationship Within
Tropical Ecological Networks
Kleber Del-Claro, Denise Lange, Helena Maura Torezan-Silingardi,

Diego Vinicius Anjos, Eduardo Soares Calixto, Wesley Dáttilo,
and Victor Rico-Gray
Abstract The tools involved in the study of ecological networks are relatively new
and very useful to improve the knowledge about communities, biodiversity, and
their conservation. In many tropical habitats, ants form the major part of the arthro-
pod fauna found on vegetation and, therefore, it is extremely common to observe
ants establishing ecological interactions with the host plants, where they find and
use nectar, oils, pollen, arils, and seeds as food resources. In this chapter, we show
that ant–plant interactions are dynamic, diverse, worldwide spread, and very manip-
ulative which fit perfectly as models in studies dealing with interaction networks.
For this, we have conducted global review in the distribution of studies on ant–plant
networks and highlighted the most recurrent structural patterns observed in ant–
plant networks and the main mechanisms and process behind this structure. Finally,
we pointed out the limitations and new directions for the study of ant–plant net-
works in tropical environments.
K. Del-Claro (*) • H.M. Torezan-Silingardi

Laboratório de Ecologia Comportamental e de Interações (LECI), Instituto de Biologia,
Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia, MG 38408-100, Brazil
D. Lange
Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná,
Campus Santa Helena, Santa Helena, PR, Brazil
D.V. Anjos • E.S. Calixto
Programa de Pós-graduação em Entomologia, Universidade de São Paulo,
Ribeirão Preto, SP 14040-901, Brazil
W. Dáttilo
Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología A.C.,
Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351, El Haya, Xalapa Ver CP 91070, Mexico
V. Rico-Gray
Instituto de Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana,
Av. Dr. Luís Castelazo s/n, 91190 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_5
60 K. Del-Claro et al.
5.1 Introduction
As a focus for conservation efforts, biodiversity has received increased attention in

the last four decades (Wilson and Peter 1988; Pearson 1994). Searching for patterns
in biodiversity, researchers have suggested various units of study including ecologi-
cal communities (Hunter et al. 1988), cladistics classifications (Vane-Wright et al.
1991), hierarchical composite of different levels of organization (Noss 1990), and
groups of taxonomically related species (Holloway and Jardine 1968). The majority
of programs for conservation of natural systems have been concerned primarily
with the maintenance of species diversity, ecosystem function, and the preservation
of genetic variation within populations (Thompson 1997). Thus, a broader view of
biodiversity has prevailed (Thompson 2013). However, in a more recent and realis-
tic perspective, biodiversity should be viewed and evaluated in ways that also
embraces the extreme richness inherent in biotic interactions, including not only
trophic relationships (Price 2002), but also aspects of life histories, biology, and
behavior of related species (Del-Claro et al. 2013). In this still new promising path-
way to really understand the mechanisms involved in our amazing biodiversity
dawn the studies of ecological networks (Bascompte 2009; Bastolla et al. 2009;
Bascompte and Jordano 2013; Dáttilo et al. 2016—see the other chapters of this
book for a general review). In this sense, to add ecological networks studies to our
knowledge of aspects of life histories, biology, and behavior of related species, we
need to search for useful tools and biological systems to achieve success in a so
complex scientific field.
Ant–plant systems can be pointed out as excellent models for gaining a better
understanding of biodiversity through the ways of interactions or “interaction biodi-
versity” (Thompson 1997; Del-Claro et al. 2016). Why ants? Well… in many habi-
tats ants present a particularly remarkable abundance and diversity of associations
with plants in the tropical region (Rico-Gray 1993; Blüthgen et al. 2000; Rico-Gray
and Oliveira 2007; Lange and Del-Claro 2014; Del-Claro et al. 2016). In fact, it is
very common to see ants foraging on plants, mainly due to the availability of food
and nesting sites on and within plant tissues (Rico-Gray and Oliveira 2007). In gen-
eral, we can score an ant species foraging on a plant species as an ant–plant interac-
tion. This approach encompasses different types of ecological interactions,
including: mutualisms (e.g., protective ant–plant system, seed-dispersal, and polli-
nation); neutralisms (e.g., ants using plants only as substrate); antagonisms (e.g.,
leaf-cutting ants or repelling pollinators); and more complex indirect interactions
that are both positive and negative (Rico-Gray and Oliveira 2007; Dáttilo and
Dyer 2014) (Fig. 5.1). Within a natural environment different ant and plant species
can interact with each other and generate complex ecological networks. In the last
decade, researchers have increasingly used tools derived from the network theory to
study the relationships between ants and plants in tropical regions, which have
allowed us to understand the origin and maintenance of structural patterns in ant–
plant networks.
5 The Complex Ant–Plant Relationship Within Tropical Ecological Networks 61
Fig. 5.1 Examples of ecological interactions involving ants on plants. PROTECTIVE

MUTUALISMS: (a) a worker of Neoponera villosa feeding on an extrafloral nectar of Senna sp.
(Fabaceae); (b) a worker of Camponotus crassus tending Achenophora sp. (Membracidae) on
Peixotoa tomentosa (Malpighiaceae) (c) a worker of Camponotus sp. tending a lycaenid butterfly
larva. ANTAGONISMS: (d) leaf-cutting ants; (e) a worker of Camponotus sp. repelling the visita-
tion of Centris (Ptilotopus) sp. (Apidae) on the flowers of Byrsonima intermedia (Malpighiaceae).
NEUTRALISMS: (f) a worker of Ectatomma tuberculatum using leafs of Plathymenia reticulata
(Fabaceae) only as a foraging substrate
In this chapter, we present a global overview in the use of network theory to

study ant–plant interactions in the tropics. Specifically, our goals were to: (1) review
the global distribution of studies on ant–plant networks; (2) describe the most recur-
rent structural patterns observed in ant–plant networks and highlight the main
mechanisms and process structuring them and; (3) point out the limitations and new
directions for the study of ant–plant networks in tropical environments.
5.2 Ant–Plant Interactions in a Network Perspective
The advent of the use of tools derived from graph theory to investigate the structure
and shape of ecological interactions around the world is drastically modifying the
manner we look to the tree of life. Several metrics have been used to enable conclu-
sions to be drawn about structure, specialization, stability, and robustness of interac-
tion networks. Such metrics are useful descriptors of ecological systems that can
show the composition of the interactions between multiple and complex elements of
a system (Bascompte 2009), by forming an essential ingredient in studies of natural
communities (Hagen et al. 2012).
When compared to other systems (e.g., pollination and seed-dispersal), ant–plant
interaction networks have received less attention in literature. To date, we have
knowledge of about 35 published articles (searched in the database of Web of
Science and Scopus) on ant–plant networks (Fig. 5.2). The first study dealing with
the relationships between ants and plants within interaction networks was con-
ducted by Guimarães et al. (2006), but only in the last 5 years (from the year 2012)
there has been a remarkable growth in the literature on the subject. In the seminal
study of Guimarães et al. (2006), the authors showed for the first time that nested-
ness is a pattern that emerges also from ant–plant networks, which had been consid-
ered only for other types of mutualisms (pollination and seed-dispersal). Most of
these studies (62%) dealing with ant–plant networks have focused on the interac-
tions between ants and plants with extrafloral nectaries (EFN-bearing plants), where
ants have a sugary food resource from plants in exchange of plant protection against
potential herbivores. However, little is known about other types of ant–plant interac-
tion networks, such as: ant-myrmecophyte networks (20%), ant-flower networks
(11%), and ant-seed networks (6%). In addition, most of the studies involving ant–
plant networks have been conducted in the Neotropical region (80%), basically in
three specific regions: Amazon and Neotropical Savanna both in Brazil, and on the
coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Thus, there is a bias in the number of studies dealing
with ant–plant networks (mainly involving EFN-bearing plants) limited to a few
regions, which makes it difficult to compare studies between types of ant–plant
interactions and large spatial scales.
5.3 O
rigin and Maintenance of Structural Patterns
in Ant–Plant Networks
Using a network approach several studies have described the structure of interac-
tions between ants and EFN-bearing plants (Guimarães et al. 2006, 2007; Díaz-
Castelazo et al. 2010; Sugiura 2010; Dáttilo et al. 2013a, 2014a, b, 2016; Lange
et al. 2013; Lange and Del-Claro 2014; Fagundes et al. 2016). Nestedness is the
most common nonrandom pattern found in these ant–plant networks, it predicts that
within these interaction networks there is a central core of highly interacting species
Fig. 5.2 (a) Distribution of ant–plant networks around the world representing different relation-
ships between ants and plants (floral nectar, extrafloral nectar, myrmecophyte, and seeds/fruits).
(b) Proportion of ant–plant networks published in different biogeographical regions. (c) Cumulative
number of published studies on ant–plant networks from 2006 to 2017. Note that the number of
published studies and the number of networks recorded are different among them because within
one study there may be more than one network available
with many interactions among themselves, and peripheral species with few interac-
tions interact with a proper subset of the central core of generalists with the most
interactions (Bascompte et al. 2003). Díaz-Castelazo et al. (2013) showed that,
despite the variation in ant and plant species over time, the nested pattern remained
in ants–EFN-bearing plant network in a tropical Mexican forest, even after 20 years.
Similar results were observed by Lange and Del-Claro (2014) with the same system
but in a Neotropical Savanna. Both studies when added to several other studies of
short period suggest that this network descriptor is persistent and relatively constant
over time.
Several factors have been proposed to explain the origin and maintenance of
structural patterns in ant–plant networks including both abiotic and biotic factors,
such as temperature and precipitation (Rico-Gray et al. 2012), soil and vegetation
features (Dáttilo et al. 2013b), body size of ant species (Chamberlain and Holland
2008), and ant dominance hierarchy (Dáttilo et al. 2014a, b). Nevertheless, we yet
know (Anjos et al. unpubl. data) that morphological features like seed and ant man-
dible size are enough to shape ant–plant interactions. All these factors influence
somehow the structure of ant–plant networks, but plant phenology is a remarkable
one (Lange et al. 2013; Vilela et al. 2014). Specifically for interactions between ants
and EFN-bearing plants, EFN secretion is directly related to specific phenological
stages of the plant, such as leaf expansion and flowering (Korndörfer and Del-Claro
2006; Calixto et al. 2015). It is known that abiotic factors directly influence the
ant–plant interaction (e.g., through EFNs-productivity), as well as the phenology of
plants. Thus, sequential events may directly affect ant–plant interactions and the
resulting ecological networks over time. Vilela et al. (2014) showed that the sequen-
tial flowering of a community of Malpighiaceae shrubs, which possess EFNs and
are tended by protective ants (Torezan-Silingardi 2011; Ferreira and Torezan-
Silingardi 2013; Alves-Silva et al. 2014), resulted in the share of an entire herbi-
vores community and also the associated ant species among plant species. There
was a transferring of the biotic protection by ants from one plant species to other
over time, following the plant phenology and the movement of herbivores among
plant species.
Independent of the local and landscape environmental factors, the nonrandom
pattern of the assemblages involved in ant–plant networks does not change, and
therefore, this cohesive structure appears to be the key for the maintenance of bio-
diversity in these and other communities (Díaz-Castelazo et al. 2013). Recent stud-
ies show that the central core of highly interacting ant species is stable over long
time (Lange et al. 2013) and spatial scales (Dáttilo et al. 2013a) and interact among
them more than expected under the assumption of an abundance-based, random
mixing of individuals (Dáttilo et al. 2014c). This central core of ant species is stable
because the ant species found in the generalist core are competitively superior,
showing massive recruitment and resource domination, compared with peripheral
species with fewer interactions (Dáttilo et al. 2014a). A possible biological conse-
quence of the generalist core formed by competitively superior species is that most
plant species found within ant–plant networks could be better protected against
herbivory by these dominant ant species since the number of ants on the host plant
is associated with effectiveness in defense against herbivores (Del-Claro and
Marquis 2015).
The variation in outcomes of mutualisms between ants and EFN-bearing plants
is widely recognized (see Rico-Gray and Oliveira 2007; Rosumek et al. 2009). In
ecological networks, knowing the outcomes of interactions among pairwise associ-
ates is imperative to draw valid conclusions about the functionality of these net-
works. In this sense, a recent study conducted by Lange and Del-Claro (2014)
evaluated the ants–EFN-bearing plants interaction using two tools: network analy-
sis and experimental manipulation. This study showed that the general structure of
the network was maintained over time, but internal changes (species degree,
connectance, and ant abundance) influenced the protection effectiveness of plants
by ants. This study also shows that the dynamic of ant–plant interaction affected
both the network and the outcomes of the mutualisms. Beyond the use two tools of
interactive studies, Lange and Del-Claro (2014) also presented the original and
complete list of related (ants and plants) species, what is basic to studies of biodi-
versity distribution. This type of data contributes to more general studies (e.g.,
meta-analysis) (see also Díaz-Castelazo et al. 2010, 2013; Chamberlain and Holland
2008; Lange et al. 2013; Dáttilo et al. 2014a, b).
Although nestedness has been a pattern commonly found in ant–plant networks
(Del-Claro et al. 2016) and in several other mutualistic interactions (e.g., pollina-
tion) (Burgos et al. 2007; Bascompte and Jordano 2013), it is not a pattern that
emerges from all ant–plant relationships. For instance, Guimarães et al. (2007)
characterized a very specialized mutualism between ants and myrmecophytes, less
common than ant–EFN-bearing plants, the ant-myrmecophyte interactions produce
nets clearly divided with isolated groups, a compartmentalized pattern (see also
Blüthgen et al. 2006, 2007). Therefore, networks involving ants and EFN-bearing
plants tend to be more nested and less modular compared to ant-myrmecophyte
networks, which tend to be highly specialized and phylogenetically structured
(Cagnolo and Tavella 2015).
5.4 The Robustness of Ant–Plant Networks
We have already seen that patterns found in ant–plant interaction networks are con-
stant throughout space and time, but how are they robust to perturbations? Following
these steps, Dáttilo (2012) compared the tolerances of symbiotic (myrmecophyte)
and nonsymbiotic (EFN-bearing plants) ant–plant networks to species extinctions.
The author showed that symbiotic networks were less robust for both ants and plants
species extinction compared to nonsymbiotic networks. Therefore, the intimacy
level of interactions directly influences the pattern of the network as a result of
coevolution among related organisms where the change in one species affects its
partner in more closed relationships, for example, in ant-myrmechophytes interac-
tions. In facultative interactions like ants–EFN-bearing plants, could evolutionary
changes in one species affect multiple partners? (e.g., Guimarães et al. 2007). On
the other hand, the resistance and stability of ant–plant networks have been causing
some preoccupation in terms of biological conservation. Passmore et al. (2012)
showed that, although less robust to species extinction, ant-myrmechophyte plants
interactions in the Amazonian forest fragments presented the same pattern observed
in continuous and preserved forest. Similar results were found by Dáttilo et al.
(2013a, b), where the authors demonstrate that these highly specialized associations
between ants and myrmecophytes result in cohesive associations within modules,
regardless of the type of habitat (primary and secondary forests) and, therefore, the
ecological conditions where the associations occur. Moreover, there is other
evidence that ant–plant networks are robust to different types of disturbances, such
as: changes in land use (Falcão et al. 2015), removal of abundant seed disperser
through rewiring (Timóteo et al. 2016) or after the passage of a tropical hurricane
(Sánchez-Galván et al. 2012). Thus, it seems that in general terms ant–plant net-
works tend to be robust to different types of disturbance.
Recent studies evidenced that these ecological networks are so successful that
can cause an “invasive collapse” (Eichhorn et al. 2011; Green et al. 2011) at com-
munity level in case of ant species and its associated plants being introduced in a
new environment. Only two studies considered the impact of exotic species on ant–
plant networks. The first one, the author shows that interactions involving exotic
species can represent up to 82.5% from all ant–plant interactions observed on
islands in the Pacific Ocean (Sugiura 2010). More recently, Falcão et al. (2017)
observed that tramp and invasive ant species have little direct impact on the struc-
ture of ant–plant interactions in a tropical coastal environment in Mexico. However,
there is still little knowledge available in the literature to draw conclusions about the
effect of invasive species on ant–plant networks.
5.5 L
imitations and Recommendations for the Study
of Ant–Plant Networks
Due to the fact that ants are eusocial organisms and generally recruit many workers
in the same plant, it generates a problem in the quantification the frequency of inter-
action for a quantitative network. Thus, in order to avoid overestimating the ant
species with more efficient systems for recruiting, we suggest to use the frequency
of ant–plant interactions based on the number of times in which an ant species was
recorded interacting with a plant species in the plot/transect, not the number of
workers on a plant (Dáttilo et al. 2014b). Therefore, we should at least consider
these artifacts when comparing studies involving ant–plant networks, which have
not been done so far.
Another limitation in the study of ant–plant networks is the methodology for
sampling the ants on the plants. There are a wide variety of methods for collecting
ants on plants (e.g., active collection, entomological umbrella, baits, and arboreal
pitfall traps), as well as climbing techniques for canopy ants, which could lead to
studies that are not comparable among them. In order to avoid misleading conclu-
sions about the role of species and the structure of ant–plant networks, we suggest
using complementary methods to sampling ant–plant interaction networks (Dáttilo
et al. 2014c). In addition, we also suggest using both daytime and nighttime sam-
pling, mainly because the role of species in ant–plant interaction networks seems to
change between different times of the day (Dáttilo et al. 2014b, 2015). But what is
the size of the plot/transect needed to sample ant–plant networks? Well… one of the
most persisting challenges in ecology is the definition of spatial scales to describe
an ecological system. Since the effects of spatial variation and scale on the patterns
observed in ant–plant networks remains poorly understood, we recommend the use
of accumulation curves of distinct pairwise of interactions to assess if we have a

well-sampled community or if we recorded enough species and interactions to
describe our ant–plant network, as recently proposed by Falcão et al. (2016).
The bias in the number and concentration of ant–plant network studies in a few
regions and the lack of standardization of collection methods generates a difficulty
when comparing ant–plant networks and consequently, the knowledge about large
patterns of interactions networks. Therefore, there is no information available in the
literature on the macroecological knowledge (e.g., continental patterns of interac-
tions and altitudinal and latitudinal gradients) of ant–plant interaction networks.
Based on the recent policy of data sharing that has been growing in most scientific
journals, we have called the attention of researchers to make their databases avail-
able in the supplementary material of their articles. Also, working in more effective
networks of scientific collaboration may increase the understanding about the orga-
nization of ant–plant interaction networks studies on the Earth.
5.6 Future Directions in the Study of Ant–Plant Networks
It is incontestable that graph theory brings enormous advances to the knowledge of

ecological interactions, especially to ant–plant interactions, but there are many top-
ics to discuss in relation to existent metrics and about the methodology to collect
field data. There is a clear lack of standardization and common protocols that pro-
duces great variation and little confidence to establish general patterns. The produc-
tion of common protocols, considering also data of natural history, biology, and
distribution of related species (e.g., Del-Claro and Torezan-Silingardi 2009), added
to graph theory tools could amplify our knowledge about the pinnacles that sustain
ecosystems. We need, specially to ant–plant ecological networks, more studies con-
sidering the: cost versus benefit and variation over space (large scales) and time
(plant phenology and seasonality); added to data of identity and natural history of
species to produce a more clear scenario of the history behind these evolved/
coevolved pool of species. It is still a considerable challenge and remains an open
question about the structure of interaction networks involving plants, trophobiont
herbivores, and ants within natural environments (Fagundes et al. 2016).
Traditionally, studies on ant–plant networks have considered only one type of
ecological interaction (e.g., ant-flower, ant-seed, and ant-nectaries) within bipartite
sub-networks. However, in ecological communities, ants and plants are involved in
multiple kinds of interactions. In fact, ants are one of the few organisms that can
have multiple roles in interacting with plants within an ecosystem, as for example:
pollinator, disperser, protector, and neuter. In this way, ants and plants can have all
their interactions within an environment merged to generate multi-networks of spe-
cies interactions, and involving different trophic levels (e.g., predators and parasit-
oids) (Fig. 5.3). Trying to unravel these multiple interactions involving ants, some
studies have recently showed that interactions networks involving different resource
types (e.g., nectaries and flowers) and hemipterans are connected by a few central
Fig. 5.3 A schematic multi-network of coupled interactions involving ants, plants, hemipteran,
Lepidoptera caterpillar secretion, predator, and parasitoid
ant species (Costa et al. 2016; Fagundes et al. 2016). However, we still have little
empirical evidence on how the organization of interlinked mutualistic networks
may be essential for the maintenance of ecological communities rich in species.
The next steps pass by an evaluation on the role of each partner within these
multi-trophic networks. This preoccupation is not new, and some studies yet do that
(see Díaz-Castelazo et al. 2010, 2013; Lange et al. 2013; Dáttilo et al. 2014a, b;
Lange and Del-Claro 2014). Therefore, a more clear comprehension of functional
organization of the interactions involving ants and plants is fundamental to our
understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of the complex relation-
ships involving these organisms in tropical environments.
Acknowledgements Authors thank to the dozens of collaborators that helped them in field and
laboratory in the past two decades studying ant–plant interactions in the tropics. We thank also
Pedro Luna who helped us to obtain information available in the literature on ant–plant networks.
KDC and HMTS thanks for grants from CNPq, Fapemig, and CAPES.
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Chapter 6
Plant-Pollinator Networks in the Tropics:
A Review
Jeferson Vizentin-Bugoni, Pietro Kiyoshi Maruyama,
Camila Silveira de Souza, Jeff Ollerton, André Rodrigo Rech,
and Marlies Sazima
Abstract Most tropical plants rely on animals for pollination, thus engaging in
complex interaction networks. Here, we present a global overview of pollination
networks and point out research gaps and emerging differences between tropical
and non-tropical areas. Our review highlights an uneven global distribution of stud-
ies biased towards non-tropical areas. Moreover, within the tropics, there is a bias
towards the Neotropical region where partial networks represent 70.1% of the pub-
lished studies. Additionally, most networks sampled so far (95.6%) were assembled
by inferring interactions by surveying plants (a phytocentric approach). These
biases may limit accurate global comparisons of the structure and dynamics of trop-
ical and non-tropical pollination networks. Noteworthy differences of tropical net-
works (in comparison to the non-tropical ones) include higher species richness
which, in turn, promotes lower connectance but higher modularity due to both the
higher diversity as well as the integration of more vertebrate pollinators. These
interaction patterns are influenced by several ecological, evolutionary, and historical
processes, and also sampling artifacts. We propose a neutral–niche continuum
model for interactions in pollination systems. This is, arguably, supported by
J. Vizentin-Bugoni (*)
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp),
Cx. Postal 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil
P.K. Maruyama • M. Sazima
Departamento de Biologia Vegetal, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp),
Cx. Postal 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, SP, Brazil
C.S. de Souza
Programa de Pós Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, CCBS, Universidade Federal de
Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), Cx. Postal 549, 79070-900 Campo Grande, MS, Brazil
J. Ollerton
Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology, University of Northampton,
Avenue Campus, Northampton, UK
A.R. Rech
Licenciatura em Educação do Campo, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e
Mucuri (UFVJM), CEP, 39100-000 Diamantina, MG, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_6
74 J. Vizentin-Bugoni et al.
e vidence that a high diversity of functional traits promotes greater importance of

niche-based processes (i.e., forbidden links caused by morphological mismatching
and phenological non-overlap) in determining which interactions occur, rather than
random chance of encounter based on abundances (neutrality). We conclude by
discussing the possible existence and direction of a latitudinal gradient of special-
ization in pollination networks.
6.1 Introduction
Naturalists have long been amazed by the diversity and complexity of life in the
tropics (e.g., Darwin 1859; Wallace 1869). In tropical ecosystems, a high proportion
of species rely on mutualistic interactions to complete their life cycles. Pollination
by animals is one of these processes and occurs when animals transfer pollen grains
among flowers while visiting them, hence promoting seed set. Despite the occur-
rence of self-fertilization and abiotic pollination by wind and water, most angio-
sperms (at least 300,000 species) rely on animals for pollination (Ollerton et al.
2011), while as many as 350,000 described vertebrate and invertebrate animal spe-
cies are estimated to engage in this interaction (Ollerton 2017). The proportion of
animal-pollinated plants is widely variable around the planet, with some tropical
communities having as much as 100% of the plants partially or entirely dependent
on animals (Ollerton et al. 2011; Rech et al. 2016).
Classically, plant-pollinator studies have considered a few focal species of plants
or functional pollinator groups (Burkle and Alarcón 2011; next section in this chap-
ter). However, coexisting assemblages of plants and pollinators engage in complex
interaction networks encompassing sometimes hundreds of species (Jordano 1987).
Studying plant-pollinator systems as ecological networks allows the investigation of
the structure and dynamics of these complex interactive assemblages and facilitates
the understanding of system-level phenomena that cannot be inferred by looking at
the components of a community in isolation (Memmott 1999; Bascompte 2009).
In doing so, network analysis offers possibilities to explore novel and long lasting
questions in ecology (Bascompte 2009). Importantly, network thinking has been inte-
grated into conservation, restoration, and management (Tylianakis et al. 2010; Falcão
et al. 2015). This integration offers promising tools to cope with the urgent challenge
to understand and mitigate the effects of environmental changes, biological invasions,
and species loss on crucial ecological processes such as pollination (Tylianakis et al.
2010; Burkle and Alarcón 2011; Maruyama et al. 2016, Biella et al. 2017).
Indeed, network analyses have thus promoted several advances including the
description of consistent structural patterns of mutualistic assemblages and the
underlying processes (reviewed in Vázquez et al. 2009a, Trøjelsgaard and Olesen
2016). Furthermore, it has stimulated research using plant-pollinator interactions as
a study system to elucidate challenging questions in ecology and evolution, such as
how coevolution takes place within communities (Bascompte 2009; Guimarães
6 Plant-Pollinator Networks in the Tropics: A Review 75
et al. 2011) and whether there is a latitudinal gradient in specialization (Schleuning

et al. 2012; Pauw and Stanway 2015).
Here, we present an overview of the contribution of the network approach to
pollination ecology, with particular focus on the understanding of plant-pollinator
interactions in the tropics. Specifically, our goals are (1) to review the global distri-
bution of studies on pollination networks; (2) to describe the most recurrent struc-
tural patterns and the main underlying mechanisms, discussing peculiarities of
tropical pollination networks; and (3) to discuss the evidence, or the lack thereof, of
a latitudinal gradient of specialization in pollination networks.
6.2 A Profile of Pollination Network Studies
To investigate the global distribution of research on pollination networks, we com-

piled the published articles on the topic searching on Web of Science, Scopus, and
Google Scholar, using the following search terms: “plant-pollinator network,” “pol-
lination network,” and “floral visitation network.” After filtering these papers for
redundancies (e.g., the same networks used in different studies), we extracted the
following metadata: coordinates, altitude, country, ecosystem type, and sampling
methods (Online appendix at: doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4758646.v1; Vizentin-
Bugoni et al. 2017). For simplicity, here we defined “tropical region” as the region
located between the Tropics of Cancer (23°26′13.4″ N) and Capricorn (23°26′13.4″
S). We also considered comprehensive networks those interaction matrices encom-
passing all plants and pollinators in a given site without any a priori cut-off, and
partial networks those assembled considering a subset of interacting species from a
larger pollination network within the entire community (e.g., bee-pollinated plants).
We also classified networks assembled in forest or predominantly in open areas
(e.g., tundra, scrubland, and savanna).
6.3 Global Distribution of the Studies
We found 206 published papers on pollination networks (last search: 2 October

2016) which included 325 distinct networks sampled. Considering the localities of
these studies (Fig. 6.1A), an uneven distribution around the globe becomes evident.
Indeed, most studies are from non-tropical areas (n = 178 vs. 147 tropical networks),
especially Europe (n = 103) and North America (n = 34). In the tropical region, the
great majority comes from the Neotropics (n = 137) especially from Central America
and the Atlantic Coast of South America, with a notable gap in the Amazon and
Central Neotropical Savanna areas. Studies are even more scarce in the Paleotropics,
with only a few networks from tropical Africa, Asia, and Indian Ocean Islands, e.g.,
Mauritius and Seychelles (n = 11). Temperate networks in the Southern hemisphere
and Asia are also comparatively few in number (n = 35). From this, a bias towards
Fig. 6.1 (A) Distribution of pollination networks around the world. Comprehensive networks, i.e.,
including entire assemblages of plants and pollinators in a site, encompass 79.8% and 29.9% of the
networks assembled in non-tropical and tropical studies, respectively. (B) Proportions of pollina-
tion networks assembled based on interactions of a subset of species (partial networks; orange) or
comprehensive networks (blue) in tropical and non-tropical areas. (C) Proportions of networks
assembled in open areas (light green) or forests (dark green) in tropical and non-tropical areas. In
(B) and (C), number of networks in each category is indicated
Northern hemisphere temperate areas and a few well sampled Neotropical areas
became evident. The geographical gaps indicate places where future studies should
be considered in order to have a more complete understanding of spatial variation in
pollination networks. We consider that several historical and political reasons—
more than proper biological reasons—are likely the causes of this bias, such as
scarce or non-existent financial support for basic research programs in some regions,
lack of tradition on the study of pollination in other places, or logistical difficulties
to access and sample in remote sites. Consequently, the knowledge accumulated so
far on tropical pollination networks is inherently biased towards well-sampled
Neotropical areas, suggesting that generalizations have to be drawn carefully when
comparing tropical and temperate regions.
Most tropical networks to date were collected at elevations between 297 and 1350 m
a.s.l. (25–75% percentiles) ranging from 5 to 4200 m a.s.l. while in non-tropical regions
elevations are mostly between 100 and 1300 m a.s.l. (25–75% percentiles), ranging
from 5 to 3600 m a.s.l. (Online Appendix, see above). Overall, this suggests that lower
coastal (<100 m) and higher mountain top (>2000 m a.s.l.) areas have been relatively
poorly sampled. Therefore, under-sampled areas for pollination networks coincide
with areas under particular threat by climatic change (IPCC 2014).
6.4 Comprehensive Versus Partial Networks and Habitats

Sampled
Overall, we found 186 comprehensive and 139 partial networks. Despite the more
integrative nature of the network approach (Memmott 1999), obvious limitations to
understand system-level phenomena arise when subsets of species are considered.
The definition of the species included in partial networks usually follows functional
or taxonomic criteria, such as all hummingbird-pollinated flowers (e.g., Maruyama
et al. 2014) or oil-producing flowers (Bezerra et al. 2009). Even though partial net-
works have been studied from both tropical and non-tropical areas (Fig. 6.1A), there
is a much higher proportion of partial networks in the tropics (70.1%; n = 103) than
outside the tropics (20.2%; n = 36) (Fig. 6.1B). This is likely a consequence of the
challenge associated with sampling entire communities in the tropics arising from
higher species diversity. Moreover, not only species richness is higher, but func-
tional groups of both plants and pollinators (e.g., nocturnal versus diurnal behavior
of floral visitors, numerous animal-pollinated epiphytes) and the range of pollina-
tion systems encountered is more diverse in the tropics (see Ollerton et al. 2006). In
addition, the greater structural complexity in tropical vegetation is challenging, e.g.,
canopy in tropical forest such as the Amazon is sometimes 60 m above the ground.
Therefore, it is simpler to produce comprehensive networks for temperate grass-
lands or tundra ecosystems, for instance, than most tropical forests. In this sense, the
few tropical comprehensive networks are generally restricted to structurally simpler
ecosystems such as high-altitude or rocky outcrop grasslands (Danieli-Silva et al.
2012, Carstensen et al. 2016, but see Watts et al. 2016). Hopefully, with new tech-
nologies for sampling interactions, such as automated monitoring by cameras cou-
pled with motion video detection (Weinstein 2015) and DNA sequencing techniques
(Evans et al. 2016), this challenge may be overcome in the future.
Importantly, there is a need to recognize that pollination networks themselves are
merged into larger, more complex networks which include other types of positive,
negative, and neutral interactions, such as seed dispersal, mycorrhizae, herbivory,
predation, and epiphytism. However, few studies to date have undertaken such an
integrative approach. This is one of the main avenues for study that is just starting
to be investigated in tropical environments (e.g., Dáttilo et al. 2016). There are also
plant and pollinator species that are not connected to the wider interaction web
because they are largely mutually specialized, for example, fig trees and their fig
wasps (but see Machado et al. 2005). Not surprisingly, these have mainly been
ignored in plant-pollinator studies focused on networks, but nonetheless they are an
important component of these assemblages as “satellite” species or taxonomic/

functional groups standing apart from the rest of the community.
Lastly, most tropical networks were assembled in forests (65% vs. 35% in open
areas; n = 115), while open areas were predominantly sampled in non-tropical areas
(36% vs. 64% in forests; n = 138) (Fig. 6.1C). Hence, knowledge on tropical
pollination networks is based on partial networks mainly sampled in forests.
This imbalance in the type of habitats sampled and sampling methods in tropics and
non-tropics may also limit direct comparisons of networks between regions.
6.5 Sampling Methods
Pollination networks can be assembled by two major sampling approaches. The

phytocentric approach consists of identifying and quantifying interactions by
observing flowering plants, i.e., “focal observation” or observation in spatially
delimited areas. Alternatively, the zoocentric perspective consists of inferring inter-
actions via identification of pollen grains attached to the pollinators’ body (Bosch
et al. 2009; Jordano et al. 2009; Freitas et al. 2014).
Our survey indicates a clear bias towards phytocentric sampling (n = 311 out of
325 networks) as only ten studies used a zoocentric approach and four studies used
both methods. Both approaches have their merits and limitations: while phytocen-
tric sampling is simpler and straightforward to apply in the field with few demands
of later lab work, plant species can be sometimes overlooked if they are rare or
occur in inaccessible spots. In contrast, the zoocentric approach is more comprehen-
sive as it virtually encompasses pollen of all plants where anthers were contacted by
the pollinator. However, pollen identification tends to be time-consuming, and it is
especially difficult in highly diverse tropical communities, demanding comparisons
with a reference collection of pollen or genetic sequencing. Furthermore, pollina-
tors such as bees can sometimes clean their bodies, or collect pollen without facili-
tating pollination. In addition, as individuals have distinct home ranges, the spatial
scale of zoocentric studies is often unknown, in contrast to phytocentric sampling
(Freitas et al. 2014; Jordano 2016b). Regarding network metrics, studies suggest
that phytocentric approaches tend to overestimate specialization in tropical bird-
plant networks (Ramirez-Burbano et al. 2017, Zanata et al. 2017). This fact, together
with the observed over-representation of phytocentric approaches, indicates that the
higher specialization detected in pollination networks may be to some extent a
methodological consequence. However, how the prevalence of phytocentric
approaches influences other network patterns remains poorly investigated. Ideally,
the combination of both approaches would result in a more accurate description of
the pollination networks (Bosch et al. 2009) although it may be challenging in
practice owing to the difficulty of sorting pollen samples to species in some plant
groups, e.g., Ericaceae (Ramirez-Burbano et al. 2017). Finally, a recent study counting
pollen deposition on stigmas after single visits of each visitor revealed higher spe-
cialization of networks when compared to a network based on visitation frequency
only (Ballantyne et al. 2015), suggesting better accuracy in inferring the consequences
related to network structure for plant reproduction (as suggested by Ollerton et al.
2003). However, although ground-breaking, Ballantyne et al. (2015) worked in a
low-diversity community that included only five plants and 16 species (or groups)
of flower visitors. Applying single visit pollen deposition to build networks would
be far more challenging in species rich communities in the tropics.
It is also important to consider the difference between pollination networks and
floral visitation networks. In phytocentric sampling, pollinators are usually defined
as those species observed touching anthers and stigmas, while a number of other
visitors may extract floral resources without carrying pollen, for instance, when an
animal extracts nectar by holes in the base of the flower. These illegitimate visits
may potentially have negative effects on the plant, such as those carried out by
nectar-thieves and pollen or nectar robbers; therefore, networks including these
interactions are not properly mutualistic. Importantly, illegitimate floral visitors
may be as frequent as 75% of the species in some cases (Genini et al. 2010) which
may lead to dramatic structural differences between visitation networks including
such interactions and pollination networks that exclude them (Ollerton et al. 2003;
Genini et al. 2010; Maruyama et al. 2015), highlighting the importance of consider-
ing the visitor behavior to generate biologically meaningful networks.
6.6 Structure and Drivers of Pollination Networks
Emerging structural patterns in plant-pollinator networks are relatively well docu-

mented and similar to other mutualistic networks, such as seed dispersal webs
(reviewed in Vázquez et al. 2009a, Trøjelsgaard and Olesen 2016). Despite the
recurrence of these patterns, few of these networks are tropical and the ones from
the tropics are mostly Neotropical partial networks. Importantly, the existing geo-
graphical and sampling biases hinder accurate comparisons of network structure
between tropical and non-tropical areas, and even generalization for the tropical
areas is hampered. Nevertheless, studies accumulated to date do not suggest dra-
matic structural differences between tropical and non-tropical network structures
(Trøjelsgaard and Olesen 2016). Here, we will describe the main patterns and later
discuss peculiarities found (or predicted) for tropical plant-pollinator networks.
6.7 General Network Patterns
6.7.1 Low Connectance
Pollination networks usually possess low connectance, i.e., only a small proportion
of potential links actually occur (Jordano 1987). Connectance is sensitive to network
size and, indeed, it is known to decrease with species richness, even in partial
networks (Jordano 1987); thus tropical hyper-diverse communities are expected to

possess less connected networks. This is likely due to morphological mismatches or
spatio-temporal non-overlap which constrains interactions. Indeed, the role of these
mechanisms as barriers to some interactions has been increasingly supported (e.g.,
Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2014; Jordano 2016a) and will be detailed in Sect. 6.8.
6.7.2 Uneven Degree Distribution and Interaction Strength
Degree is the number of partners a given species interacts with. In a pollination

network, many species have few partners while few species have many partners
(Waser et al. 1996, Jordano et al. 2003). Thus, extremely low or high specialization
are ends of a continuum. Despite the recognized influence of sampling effort on
network structure (e.g., Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2016), this pattern was found to be
relatively robust to sampling effort for a database including 18 networks, of which
three were tropical (Vázquez and Aizen 2006). Also, when some measure of interac-
tion strength is considered (quantitative networks), it becomes evident that few
interactions are strong while most are weak (Bascompte et al. 2006; Vázquez et al.
2007). These uneven patterns imply that most species exhibit some degree of spe-
cialization, while only a few hyper-generalists are present in the network (Jordano
et al. 2006; Vázquez et al. 2009a). However, relatively low sampling intensity, often
concentrated over a single season, is still commonplace and hampers our efforts to
truly understand how specialized or generalized species are. Importantly, species-
level data may hide potential individual differences in specialization within popula-
tions; this aspect, however, remains poorly investigated.
6.7.3 Asymmetric Interactions
This feature refers to both the degree and the interaction strength, i.e., an esti-
mate of the impact of one species on another. Respectively, this means that spe-
cies with many partners tend to interact with specialized partners, and that if
species A is strongly dependent on a species B, then B tends to be less dependent
on A (Vázquez et al. 2009a). However, it is important to notice that asymmetric
interactions do not necessarily mean asymmetric dependencies, as some plant
species can set seed without pollinators, i.e., by spontaneous self-pollination or
apomixy, or have few ovules which may be all pollinated even under low visita-
tion rates, ensuring maximum seed set. Even though asymmetric interactions
have been suggested to be pervasive, few tropical networks have been analyzed
in this regard (one tropical network out of 18 pollination networks in Vázquez
and Aizen 2004).
6.7.4 Nestedness
As with other plant-animal mutualistic interactions, pollination networks are often

nested, i.e., specialists (both pollinators and plants) interacting with generalist part-
ners, while generalists interact also with other generalist partners (Bascompte et al.
2003). Nestedness in tropical pollination networks has been comparatively less
explored, but three out of the five tropical networks included in a global analysis
were found to be significantly nested (Bascompte et al. 2003). On the other hand,
several flower–visitor networks from high tropical mountain forests were non-
nested (Cuartas-Hernández and Medel 2015) as well as a plant-hummingbird partial
network (Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2014). Nestedness notably implies that specializa-
tion only occurs on generalist partners while specialists almost never specialize on
specialist partners. In this sense, nestedness can be seen as a consequence of the
interaction asymmetries and uneven distribution of interactions among partners
described above. Importantly, nestedness supports the idea that plant-pollinator co-
evolution is mainly a diffuse process (Ehrlich and Raven 1964) and it is partially
determined by species abundances and phenologies (Vázquez et al. 2009b).
6.7.5 Modularity
Modularity is the presence of subsets of species interacting more frequently among

themselves than with other species in the network, which seems pervasive in pollina-
tion networks (Dicks et al. 2002; Olesen et al. 2007; Carstensen et al. 2016; Watts
et al. 2016) and even in partial networks (Maruyama et al. 2014). For plant-
hummingbird partial networks, modularity tends to increase with species richness,
suggesting that competition in species rich communities generates finer niche parti-
tioning and ultimately produces modules (Martín González et al. 2015). Accordingly,
a larger analysis showed that networks containing more than 150 plants and pollina-
tors were always modular. In addition, the number of modules and the size of each
module increases with species richness (Olesen et al. 2007). However, only seven out
of 51 networks were from tropical areas. Also, low sampling effort was shown to
overestimate modularity and the number of modules in a tropical plant-hummingbird
partial network (Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2016).
It is important to recognize that more robust conceptual and analytical frame-
works to test significance of nestedness (Almeida-Neto and Ulrich 2011) and
modularity (Dormann and Strauss 2014) for quantitative matrices were developed
only recently. Taken together, this calls for the need to revisit both patterns using
more robust tools and larger comprehensive datasets including more numerous trop-
ical networks. In sum, despite the fact that pollination networks have been generally
less studied in the tropics, most structural properties seem similar between tropical
and non-tropical regions. Some fundamental differences detected (or expected)
include the lower connectance but higher modularity in the tropical networks due
to the higher species richness and integration of a greater number of functional
pollinator groups (Ollerton et al. 2006).
6.8 D
rivers of Network Structure and a Niche–Neutral
Continuum Model for Interactions
A number of ecological, evolutionary, and historical processes, as well as sam-

pling artifacts, influence detected patterns in pollination networks (Vázquez et al.
2009a, b) and their relative importance is still under debate. Overall, pollination
networks present many non-observed links. To understand why these “zeros”
occur is essential to explain virtually all of the patterns described above. A com-
bination of factors contributes to “zeros” in the interaction matrix, including bio-
logical constraints, neutrality, and sampling as outlined below.
6.8.1 Contemporary Mechanisms
If the link occurs in nature but was not observed due to sampling, then the absence
of an interaction in the matrix is a “missing link.” However, if any biological phe-
nomenon prevents a pair of species from interacting, then this is a “structural zero”
in the matrix. To make a distinction of true missing links and structural zeros is
challenging and may demand deep natural history knowledge to determine their
causes (Olesen et al. 2011; Jordano et al. 2006; Jordano 2016b). These structural
zeros may be explained by three main hypotheses.
First of all, the forbidden links hypothesis postulates that inherent biological fea-
tures of species define the occurrence (or not) of an interaction. Several mechanisms
may cause forbidden links, for example, spatial or temporal non-overlap in species
distribution or activity are some of the most obvious causes, but factors such as
morphological barriers are also frequent (Jordano et al. 2006). For instance, a plant-
hummingbird partial network in the Neotropical savanna has an entire module dic-
tated by bill-corolla matching, while other modules are mainly defined by
non-overlapping distribution of potential partners among habitats (Maruyama et al.
2014). Therefore, these modules emerge from the impossibility of some interactions
to occur due to biological constraints, i.e., niche-based processes. In other words,
species may interact only when they are in the same place at the same time and have
compatible phenotypes.
Alternatively, a neutral hypothesis postulates that interactions may be defined by
random (stochastic) encounters of individuals. Therefore, species abundances are
expected to have an important role. If this is the case, abundant species should inter-
act with more partners and more frequently than the rarer ones. On the other hand,
when rare species match in their biological traits they may be too rare to find each
other and then interact (Canard et al. 2012). Indeed, species abundances have been
shown to predict interactions in several networks, e.g., plant-insect [in general]
(Vázquez et al. 2009b) and some temperate plant-hawkmoth partial networks
(Sazatornil et al. 2016). Although we refer to this as “neutral,” it is important to note
that the relative abundance of a species may be driven also by niche-based processes
(Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2014) and the elaboration of a mechanistic framework of pro-
cesses structuring interactions deserves further attention (Bartomeus et al. 2016).
A third mechanism called the morphological matching hypothesis has been
shown to better predict interactions in some cases. It postulates that—among the
interactions that are not forbidden links—pollinators are expected to preferentially
explore flowers whose morphology fits closely to pollinator mouthparts, and some
plants that could potentially be accessed are not, for instance, due to competition
with other pollinators (Santamaría & Rodríguez-Gironés 2007, Maglianesi et al.
2015). Indeed, this mechanism has been shown to determine interactions in some
plant-hawkmoth networks from the tropics (Sazatornil et al. 2016). The influence of
trait matching highlights that interactions may be determined also by (1) evolution-
ary adjustment of morphologies in sets of interaction partners, (2) species prefer-
ences, and (3) avoidance of easier-to-access resources, which presumably implies
more intense competition.
“Neutral–Niche Continuum Model” for Species

6.8.2 A
Interactions
Importantly, the three hypothetical mechanisms outlined above are not mutually
exclusive and all can (potentially) be occurring in every network, though their rela-
tive importance remains debated (Vázquez et al. 2009a, b; Vizentin-Bugoni et al.
2014). In this sense, the existence of a continuum of importance from niche-based
processes, i.e., forbidden links and matching hypotheses, to neutrality structuring
interactions has been hypothesized (Canard et al. 2014), as for competitive systems
(Gravel et al. 2006). For pollination networks, the relative importance of a process
will depend on the diversity of functional traits, i.e., the extent in which traits vary
in the assemblage. In an extreme of this continuum, where plants and pollinators
present highly variable traits, niche-based processes such as forbidden links and
morphological matching are expected to be dominant drivers of interactions, such
as in highly diverse tropical areas (Fig. 6.2; right tip of the dashed line). In the oppo-
site extreme of this continuum, random chance of encounter driven by species abun-
dances is expected to matter more where traits are not very variable, i.e., low
diversity of functional traits (Fig. 6.2; left tip of the solid line). As an example of
high trait diversity, one may consider the corolla tube length, with discrepancies
between shorter and longer corollas producing opportunities for forbidden links.
Similarly, some floral colors act as a filter for specific visitor groups (Lunau et al.
2011), such that high floral color diversity would also likely translate to more
constraints to interactions.
Fig. 6.2 Neutral–niche continuum model for interactions in pollination networks. In this model,
species interactions are expected to be mainly structured by forbidden links and morphological
matching (niche-based processes) when associated with high functional diversity, while random
chance of encounter based on species abundances (neutral-based process) are expected to matter
more under low functional diversity. See Sect 6.8 for examples
Indeed, for pollination networks, evidence accumulated so far arguably supports

the expectations of this simple “neutral–niche continuum model” for species interac-
tions. Niche-based processes were shown to matter more than neutrality in systems
with high trait variation from tropical areas, such as plant-hummingbird (Maruyama
et al. 2014; Vizentin-Bugoni et al. 2014) and tropical plant-hawkmoth pollination sys-
tems (Sazatornil et al. 2016). On the other hand, neutral processes were found to be
important in some non-tropical networks (e.g., Vázquez et al. 2009b, Olito and Fox
2015). As seasonal climate may shape species phenologies in some communities,
niche-based processes related to phenology can also play a role along with species
abundances to structure interactions. Indeed, phenological overlap was shown to be an
important driver of interactions—along with abundances—in some non-tropical pol-
lination networks (Vázquez et al. 2009b; Olito and Fox 2015). The continuum hypoth-
esis we develop here does not exclude the potential existence of a hierarchy of
importance among distinct mechanisms determining interactions in a system (Junker
et al. 2015; Bartomeus et al. 2016), but suggests that the order in this hierarchy may
depend on the diversity of functional traits. Despite the predictions of the “neutral–
niche continuum model,” a proper test of this hypothesis is still missing and must
directly relate the importance of distinct niche and neutral processes along a gradient
of networks differing in (functional) trait diversity.
Importantly, it is necessary to highlight that the niche- and neutral-based pro-
cesses outlined above originate from a number of other causal processes. Such pro-
cesses underlie community composition and structure, i.e., species richness and
relative abundances, and species distributions in time and space, which ultimately
influence network structure (Vázquez et al. 2009a; Trøjelsgaard and Olesen 2016;
Bartomeus et al. 2016). Some other processes include, for example, dispersal limita-
tion, demographic processes, adaptation, local extinction, and competition (Vázquez
et al. 2009a).
6.8.3 E
volutionary History May Shape Interactions by Its
Influence on Species Traits
One of the few attempts to describe a complete pollination network in a tropical

high-altitude grassland found around 69% of interactions correctly predicted by the
combination of floral traits (Danieli-Silva et al. 2012), as was found also for a tem-
perate study (Dicks et al. 2002). Hence, modules of taxonomic (presumably also
functional) pollinator groups interact with plants which are adapted (phenotypically
convergent) to these pollinators. In other words, closely related pollinators tend to
interact with a functionally similar array of flowers and, in several cases drive con-
vergent floral evolution. An implication of these findings is that partial networks
assembled by considering particular pollination systems (or pollination syndromes)
may not be just an artifact, and correspond to reasonably independent modules
within a larger and more complete pollination network, especially in the tropics
(Danieli-Silva et al. 2012; Carstensen et al. 2016; Watts et al. 2016).
6.8.4 Historical Drivers of Interactions
If species coexistence is crucial for interactions, phenomena promoting speciation or

extinction must also be important for contemporary network structure. These phenom-
ena may include catastrophic events (e.g., local extinctions by hurricanes; Sánchez-
Galván et al. 2012) or gradual events such as historical climate change. In this sense,
environmental (climatic) stability is expected to promote structurally more complex
networks, by offering more opportunities for coexistence, co-adaptation, and the evolu-
tion of narrower niches, i.e., specialization, as shown for plant-hummingbird partial
networks (Sonne et al. 2016). Indeed, pollination networks present higher modularity
in areas of higher historical climate stability, such as some tropical areas, both in main-
land and on islands (Dalsgaard et al. 2013) which is an indication of higher specializa-
tion in these areas. Accordingly, modularity increases with contemporary precipitation
while nestedness decreases (Dalsgaard et al. 2013), which suggests that climatic condi-
tions operating on more recent time-scales are also influencing the structure of pollina-
tion networks (see also Rech et al. 2016).
6.9 I s There a Latitudinal Gradient of Specialization

in Pollination Networks?
The general latitudinal trend of rising species richness as one move from the poles
to the tropics has long been recognized (Pianka 1966; Hillebrand 2004; Willig et al.
2003). There are around 25 tentative explanations to this latitudinal gradient (Brown
and Lomolino 1998). Considering this higher diversity in the tropics, ecologists
have proposed that species in the tropics are more often specialized in their
interactions with other species because their niche breadths evolve to be narrower in
communities that are more densely packed with species (MacArthur 1972; but see
Vázquez and Stevens 2004). However, there have been rather few tests of this
assumption with plant-pollinator interactions, and their findings have been mixed.
Olesen and Jordano (2002) initially suggested that plant-pollinator networks were
more specialized in the tropics; however, Ollerton and Cranmer (2002) showed that
any apparent increase in plant specialization in the tropics disappeared when sam-
pling effort was considered, a pattern that was consistent over two large, independent
datasets. Schleuning et al. (2012) later showed plant-pollinator networks to actually
be less ecologically specialized in the tropics compared to other regions. More
recently, Pauw and Stanway (2015) have further demonstrated that there may be dif-
ferences between the northern and southern hemispheres. The “opposite” latitudinal
trend found by Schleuning et al. (2012) was both theoretically and intuitively unpre-
dicted, and (controversially) suggests that ecological functions such as mutualistic
seed dispersal and pollination may be most sensitive to the extinction of species in
temperate ecosystems, rather than those in the tropics, as is often assumed.
Importantly, as evidenced here (Sect. 2), most tropical networks are actually partial
networks, mostly including (or restricted to) vertebrates, while non-tropical networks
are comprehensive but encompass only insects. Moreover, there is evidence that some
partial networks may be more specialized in the tropics, e.g., New World humming-
bird-flower assemblages, where specialization seems to be related mostly to precipita-
tion (Martín González et al. 2015). This could indicate that tropical specialization may
be encountered in only some partial networks, but it is unclear why, and there is much
scope for further research. What is certain, however, is that suggestions that tropical
species, and the interaction networks in which they are embedded, are always more
specialized is a huge over-simplification (Moles & Ollerton 2016).
It is worth mentioning that biodiversity gradients are strongly dependent upon
spatial scale and sampling effort (Willig et al. 2003, see also Dalsgaard et al. 2017).
Hence, considering that tropical studies are often less intensively sampled than
temperate ones, it is plausible to suggest that we are still far from a proper test of
whether specialization is higher in tropical pollination interactions. Even though
the pattern of species increase from the poles to the equator is far more common
than the opposite (or the absence of pattern) and holds true for terrestrial plants
(Cowling and Samways 1995; Gentry 1988), some important groups of pollinators
such as bees show their highest diversity at intermediate latitudes (Ollerton et al.
2006; Michener 2007). Indeed, Trøjelsgaard and Olesen (2013) found the number
of pollinators per plant species peaking at mid-latitudes. Also, among the groups
showing a negative correlation to latitude, not all of them increase in species at the
same rate. Bats, for example, show the steepest equatorward species increment
among mammals (Willig et al. 2003). Therefore, considering that different pollina-
tor groups may show contrasting local diversities along the latitudinal gradient, it
will also be interesting to go deeper into how their relative importance as pollina-
tors and the plants relying upon each pollinator group will behave over space
(Ollerton et al. 2006).
6.10 Concluding Remarks
Our review suggests that pollination networks are structurally similar in the tropical
and non-tropical areas. In tropical regions where species diversity (and presumably
also functional diversity) is high, however, niche-based processes which impose
barriers to species interactions via forbidden links and trait matching among part-
ners are expected to be more important than neutral-based processes in structuring
interaction networks. Importantly, the influence of sampling artifacts on pollination
networks has been poorly investigated so far, especially in the tropics. Here, we
show that there are some important biases which potentially limits accurate gener-
alizations, notably, geographical and sampling biases in the distribution of pollina-
tion networks worldwide. Thus, we highlight that further advances in the
understanding of plant-pollinator networks demand increasing research effort cov-
ering the Paleotropical region, consideration of the multiple functional groups and
their roles (e.g., true pollinators vs. other floral visitors) interacting with flowers and
sampling of more complete networks. Such studies are needed to better understand
differences among tropical and non-tropical areas and whether the latitudinal gradi-
ent in species richness affects the structure of pollination networks, which may have
important implications on our ability to predict and manage interactions under sce-
narios of increasing environmental change.
Acknowledgements We thank Bjørn Hermansen for help with map layers and Felipe W. Amorim,
Vinícius L. G. Brito, Thomas Lewinsohn, and Marina Wolowski for comments. Funding was pro-
vided by CAPES through Ph.D. scholarships to JVB and CSS, FAPESP through a Postdoctoral
grant to PKM (proc. 2015/21457-4) and a visiting researcher grant to JO (proc. 2013/14442-5) and
CNPq through a research grant to MS (proc. 303084/2011-1).
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Chapter 7
Tropical Seed Dispersal Networks: Emerging
Patterns, Biases, and Keystone Species Traits
Gema Escribano-Avila, Carlos Lara-Romero,
Ruben Heleno, and Anna Traveset
Abstract Seed dispersal mediated by animals is a pivotal ecological interaction in

the tropics. Despite a long tradition of tropical seed dispersal studies, only recently
the drivers of the structure of seed dispersal networks are beginning to be uncovered
at macroecological scales. The knowledge on tropical seed dispersal comes mainly
from avian dispersal studies in the Neotropics while other frugivores and tropical
regions are strongly understudied. The networks sampled with a combination of
visitation census and seed recovery from feces seem more reliable of the number of
detected links and web asymmetry than networks based on a single method. Our
review reveals that keystone species in most networks share a set of functional traits
likely influenced by species phylogeny. Woody plants bearing small berries (in the
Melastomataceae, Myrtaceae, Moraceae, and Urticaceae families) were the most
frequent keystone plants whereas two groups of keystone animals could be identi-
fied, namely: small obligate frugivores (Pipridae and Thraupidae) and large animals
including a variety of taxonomic groups such as cracids, rodents, monkeys, and
megafauna. Large keystone species tend to face a higher extinction risk leading to a
concern on the sustainability of the dispersal services they provide, mainly to large-
seeded plant species that are essential to ecosystem functioning.
G. Escribano-Avila • C. Lara-Romero • A. Traveset (*)

Departamento de Cambio Global, Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados (CSIC-UIB),
07190-Esporles, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
R. Heleno
Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra,
Coimbra, Portugal

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_7
94 G. Escribano-Avila et al.
7.1 Introduction
In the tropics, the majority of seeds are contained in fleshy fruits of different shapes
and colours, adapted to endozoochory (Wheelwright 1988). When feeding upon
fruits, the animals remove the pulp and free the seed that is frequently moved away
from its parent’ crown, escaping strong competition with siblings and high pressure
from shared natural enemies (Janzen 1970; Connell 1971, but see Hyatt et al. 2003).
This interaction between frugivorous animals and fleshy-fruited plants is the most
relevant mode of seed dispersal in tropical forests and promotes local regeneration
and colonization of vacant habitats (Howe and Smallwood 1982). However, it has
been identified as one of the biological interactions related to forest dynamics that
is most vulnerable to human disturbance (Neuschulz et al. 2016). Seed dispersal
mediated by animals contributes to genetic diversity and gene flow at local and
regional scales (Jordano et al. 2007) and it also functions as a relevant driver of
evolutionary dynamics for fleshy-fruited plants (Jordano et al. 2007; Lomáscolo
et al. 2010; Galetti et al. 2013). A large proportion of vertebrates rely on fruits for a
living, especially in tropical forests where the extraordinary bird and mammal rich-
ness is partly explained by the evolutionary relationship of such species with fleshy-
fruited plants (Fleming et al. 1987).
Strictly speaking, seed dispersal events usually involve two individuals: a plant
and an animal. Yet, the fruits of each plant are usually dispersed by an array of fru-
givorous, which in turn consume the fruits and disperse the seeds of many other
plants, and consequently seed dispersal is intrinsically a community-level process.
Hence, to fully understand the ecological and evolutionary consequences of seed
dispersal, it is crucial to consider the inherent complexity of interactions at the level
of entire biological communities (Vázquez et al. 2009a). The analytical network
approach is the most valuable tool to accomplish such task by providing a holistic
viewpoint from where each pairwise plant–disperser interaction can be considered
simultaneously and at the same time account for the biological context of the entire
community (Bascompte and Jordano 2007).
Some of the classic studies on seed dispersal already embraced such a community-
wide understanding for the study of seed dispersal (Snow and Snow 1971); Crome
1975; Wheelwright et al. 1984). However, only with the advent of modern ecological
networks analysis, communities started being considered as interaction networks, pro-
gressively moving from qualitative to quantitative networks (Heleno et al. 2014).
Recent work has already detected some emerging macroecological patterns from trop-
ical seed dispersal networks (Schleuning et al. 2011, 2012, 2014; Sebastián-González
et al. 2015; Sakai et al. 2016). For instance, tropical dispersal networks show to be less
specialized than temperate ones, which has been attributed to the greater plant diver-
sity and lower relative abundance of resource plants in the former (Schleuning et al.
2012; Chama et al. 2013). Tropical networks also appear to be less modular than tem-
perate ones, which might be due to a lower preponderance of seasonal effects structur-
ing tropical interactions (Schleuning et al. 2014). Yet, such a relationship between
modularity and latitude was absent once accounting for spatial autocorrelation, and a
nested pattern with latitude was not found either (Sebastián-González et al. 2015).
7 Tropical Seed Dispersal Networks 95
Probably, the next challenge for researchers working on seed dispersal networks
is to build more functional networks, i.e., networks that inform us on how their
composition and structure translate into ecosystem functioning. To accomplish
such task, it is necessary to move from seed dispersal to recruitment networks
(Schleuning et al. 2015) and also from community to intra-population level. Yet,
only recently has seed fate begun being incorporated in networks by quantifying
the proportion of intact seeds present in animal droppings (Heleno et al. 2013).
Studies that quantify seed dispersal effectiveness (sensu Schupp et al. 2010) and
estimate seedling recruitment are still very rare (González-Castro et al. 2015;
Donoso et al. 2016) with only some attempts in tropical ecosystems (Muñoz et al.
2016; Pigot et al. 2016).
Despite the progress made over the last decades, our understanding of tropical
seed dispersal networks is still in its infancy and is currently limited by the qual-
ity, quantity, and distribution of available datasets. Here, our aim was to perform
a review to characterize the state of the art, to detect potential biases affecting
current understanding of tropical seed dispersal networks, and to identify emerg-
ing patterns related to the identity and functional traits of the keystone dispersers
and plants and discuss their implications for conservation, something not previ-
ously tackled by previous revisions. For these purposes, we searched for articles
published up to 2016 on seed dispersal networks in the tropics using the follow-
ing search terms in Web of Science and Scopus: “seed dispersal network” OR
“frugivor* dispersal network” OR “plant-frugivor* network” OR (“mutualistic
interaction network” AND dispersal) in the title, keywords or abstract. This
search resulted in 58 articles. An additional search was performed in Google
Scholar with the same keywords for papers published in 2015–2016 to detect
articles accepted for publication but still not available in Web of Science.
Additional studies were compiled from two specialized databases: Interaction
Web Data Base (https://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/interactionweb) and Web of Life
http://www.web-of-life.es/2.0/index.php). After processing all publications, we
selected 43 studies that provided information on seed dispersal or frugivory net-
works at the community level within tropical latitudes (23.5°N and S). From
each study, we compiled the following information: location (latitude and longi-
tude, country and biogeographic region), main habitat type, and level of distur-
bance (Table 7.1). Regarding the taxonomic groups, we recorded the number of
animal taxa included in each network, and the class of each animal (e.g., bird,
mammal, reptile); for mammals, we further classified them according to the
order to which they belong (e.g., ungulate, rodent, primate). Moreover, we
obtained (1) the total number of plant species in the network and the number of
links, (2) whether the network was qualitative (binary) or quantitative (weighted),
(3) the sampling method implemented (e.g., visitation census or fecal analyses),
and (4) whether extinction simulations were performed (Table 7.1). When the
studies highlighted the role of particular species owing to their contribution to
network structure, this information was also extracted and the main traits of
these species were compiled.
Table 7.1 Information of the networks included in this review
96
Sampling
Country, Region Lat Long Habitat method P A Guilds Authors Year
Trinidad, N 10.7 61.3 DF* V, W 50 14 B Snow and Snow 1971
Australia, Au −17.8 −146 RF V, B 72 7 B Crome 1975
Mexico, N 18.5 89.4 EDF V, B 5 27 B Kantak 1979
New Guinea, Oc −7.3 −146.7 MF VF, W 31 9 B Beehler 1983
Costa Rica, N 10.3 84.4 MF VF, B 169 40 B Wheelwright et al. 1984
Malaysia, Or 3.7 102.2 RF V, B 24 61 B Lambert 1989
Brazil, N −22.8 −47.1 DF* NA, W 7 18 NA Galetti and Pizzo 1996
Brazil, N −22.8 −47.1 DF* V, W 35 29 B Galetti and Pizzo 1996
Papua, N. Guinea, Oc −6.7 −145.1 RF V, B 29 32 B Marck and Wheelwright 1996
C. Philippine, Or 10.7 123.2 MF* F, B 36 19 B, Ba, M Hamman and Curio 1999
Gabon, A 0.16 11.6 EDF F, B 16 8 M Ttutin et al. 1997
Panama, N 9.1 79.6 DF F, W 67 32 B Poulin et al. 1999
Brazil, N −24.3 48.4 AF* VF, B 207 110 NA Silva et al. 2002
Puerto Rico, N 18.3 66.8 EDF V, W 25 16 B Carlo et al. 2003
Puerto Rico, N 18.3 66.5 EDF* V, W 34 20 B Carlo et al. 2003
Puerto Rico, N 18.2 66.6 EDF V, W 25 13 B Carlo et al. 2003
Puerto Rico, N 18.3 66.6 EDF* V, W 21 15 B Carlo et al. 2003
Brazil, N −24.2 −48.2 AF* VF, B 207 110 B, Ba, M Silva et al 2007
Brazil, N −19.3 −56.1 DF VF, B 46 46 B, R, F, M Donatti et al 2011
Regional, N NA NA NA NA, B 85 18 B, Ba Mello et al. 2011a
Regional, N NA NA NA F, W NA NA B Mello et al. 2011b
Thailand, Or 14.3 101.2 RF VF, B 17 41 B Sankamethawee et al. 2011
Kenya, A 0.1 34.5 RF* V, W 33 88 B, M Schleuning et al. 2011
Mexico, N 21.5 99.2 EDF* F, B 16 7 Ba Garcia-Morales et al. 2012
Kenya, A 0.1 34.5 RF* V, W 8 54 BM Menke et al. 2012
G. Escribano-Avila et al.
Ecuador, N −0.4 −89.6 DF F, W 58 18 B, R, Heleno et al. 2013
Bolivia, N −16.2 −67.3 MF* V, W 40 47 B Saavedra et al. 2014
Brazil, N −8.6 −36.3 AF* F, B 56 20 B, Ba Sarmento et al. 2014
Brazil, N −23.5 −47.2 RF V, B 88 59 B Vidal et al 2014
Regional, N −4.5 −56.3 FPF* F, NA 234 69 NA Correa et al. 2015
Mexico, N 19.3 96.6 MF F, W 30 16 Ba Hernández-Montero et al. 2015
Regional, N NA NA NA VF, B NA NA B, Ba Mello et al. 2015
Ecuador, N −0.4 −89.6 EDF F, B 34 28 B, R, M Nogales et al. 2016
Brazil, N −22 −47 AF* NA, NA 51 39 B da Silva et al. 2015
Colombia, N 2.4 74.1 RF V, W 73 68 B, M Stevenson et al. 2015
Brazil, N AF NA, B 234 4 M Bufalo et al. 2016
7 Tropical Seed Dispersal Networks
−20 −42
Mozambique, A −18.6 −34.2 DF* F, W 43 17 M Correia et al. 2016
Brazil, N −19.6 −43.6 AF F, W 34 9 M Genrich et al. 2016
Colombia, N 3.3 76.4 MF* V, B 75 60 B Palacio et al. 2016
Mexico, N 19.4 96.2 DF* VF, W 42 44 B Ramos-Robles et al. 2016
Argentina, N −23.5 −64.5 MF VF, W 69 52 B Ruggera et al. 2016
Brazil, N −18.5 −47.5 DF V, W 12 66 B Silva et al. 2016
Panama, N 9.1 −79.1 DF F, W 12 66 B Silva et al. 2016
N neotropical, A afrotropical, Or oriental, Oc Oceanian; Au Australian. Animals: B birds, M mammals, Ba bats, R reptiles, F fish. Habitat types: RF rain forest,
MF montane forest, AF Atlantic forest, EDF evergreen dry forest, DF deciduous forest, FPF flood plain forest. Anthropogenic disturbed habitats are denoted with
a star (*). V visitation censuses, F fecal analyses, W weighted; or B binary. A full list of the references is available at CSIC-Repository-Pending code assignment
97
7.2 T
emporal and Spatial Distribution of Tropical Seed
Dispersal Networks
The gathered studies range from 1971 to 2016, although 56% of them were per-
formed in the last 5 years, denoting the growing interested in the subject. More
recent networks tend to include more animal guilds and to quantify interactions
based on the identification of dispersed seeds (Table 7.1). The vast majority of
tropical seed dispersal networks have been collected in the Neotropics (77%,
n = 33), particularly in Brazil (36% n = 12), Mexico (12% n = 4), and Puerto Rico
(12% n = 4) (see Fig. 7.1). This bias had already been detected by Corlett (1998)
who pointed out the lack of studies in certain areas, such as tropical Asia, despite
the great proportion of tree species adapted to seed dispersal by frugivores. Given
the low proportion of studies outside the Neotropics (23%), our analyses will only
distinguish between studies from the Neotropics and the Paleotropics, including
Oceania.
The 43 selected studies encompassed five main habitat types: deciduous and
evergreen forests, rain forests, montane forests, and Atlantic forest, all being
evenly represented in the dataset (Table 7.1). Similarly, these studies included
both habitats with low anthropogenic disturbance (n = 22) and highly human-
ized habitats (n = 18), these last ones including secondary forests (44%, n = 8),
fragmented habitats (33%, n = 6), and shade plantations of coffee and cocoa
(22%, n = 4).
Fig. 7.1 World map representing the tropical regions on different colors. Black dots represent the
locations of the studies included in this review. The barplot on the lower left handside indicates the
number and percentage of studies in each tropical region. Differences on the number of studies
between regions were significant (χ2 = 87.12, df = 4, P < 0.001)
7.3 Basic Network Descriptors and Methodological Bias
On average, seed dispersal networks in the tropics involved 60 plant species and 37
animal species. The average number of plants was greater for the Neotropics than
the Paleotropics, the former ranging from 5 to 234 plant species and the latter from
8 to 72 plant species (Table 7.2). Animal richness, in contrast, did not follow this
trend and no differences were found between the two regions. The overall species
richness was greater for the Neotropics than for Paleotropics (Table 7.2) and,
accordingly, Neotropical networks were less connected than Paleotropical ones
(Table 7.2). Web asymmetry was consistently negative in the two regions, in agree-
ment with the greater abundance of plants compared to animals (Table 7.2). Network
robustness to species extinction (R) is defined as the network resistance to species
loss (Bascompte and Jordano 2007) and can be quantified by the area below the
extinction curve generated by secondary extinctions (Dormann et al. 2009). Only
14% (n = 6) of the studies evaluated network robustness by means of extinction
simulation analyses. Such studies showed robustness values ranging from 0.50 to
0.87 with the lowest values found in fragmented rainforests (Menke et al. 2012;
Stevenson et al. 2015; Palacio et al. 2016). Overall, thus, seed dispersal networks
seem to be quite robust to random extinctions (Stevenson et al. 2015; Palacio et al.
2016). However, when keystone species (species with high linkage level and
betweenness) are removed first, rapid secondary extinctions occur and the network
collapses much sooner (Stevenson et al. 2015; Palacio et al. 2016).
7.4 Methodological Bias
Forty six percent of the networks in our dataset were binary whereas 54% were weighted
(Table 7.1). Methods based on visitation census or on fecal content analyses were
evenly used (43 vs. 33%), whereas the combination of both was less frequent (23%).
Table 7.2 Number of plants, animals and overall species, links, connectance, and web asymmetry
(mean ± SE) for the Neotropics and Paleotropics
Test statistic
Neotropics Paleotropics (t/χ2) df P-value N
Plants 69 ± 11.6 31 ± 5.4 2.06 25 0.049 31, 10
Animals 38.1 ± 4.8 33.6 ± 8.6 0.58 14 0.567 31, 10
Species 107.13 ± 15.1 64.5 ± 8.3 3.94 13 0.003 31, 10
Links 356 ± 72.5 182 ± 48.4 1.12 21 0.275 24, 8
Connectance 0.19 ± 0.03 0.31 ± 0.1 2.27 14 0.039 24, 8
Web asymmetry −0.18 ± 0.07 −0.035 ± 0.2 0.33 1 0.564 31, 10
Number of studies used for each variable are shown in the last column for Neo and Paleotropics,
respectively. Mean differences were evaluated with a t-test in all cases except for Web asymmetry,
which was compared with a Kruskal-Wallis test as it violated the assumptions of normality
It has been previously shown that the method used to collect plant–animal interac-
tion data can influence the number of plants, animals, or links detected in a network
(Bosch et al. 2009; Gibson et al. 2011). We thus evaluated whether the methodology
used in each study influenced web asymmetry and the number of links detected. We
found that networks sampled through visitation census tended to be more symmetri-
cal than those sampled via seed recovery from feces; however, these results were not
statistically significant (F2,34 = 2.51 P = 0.095; see Fig. 7.2). The number of links,
by contrast, was affected by the type of sampling method (F2,27 = 2.67, P = 0.05),
with those networks based on a combination of the two methods encompassing on
average more links than those based either on only visits or only feces (Fig. 7.2).
This pattern has been previously found for pollination networks (Bosch et al. 2009)
and may be explained by the underestimation of interactions with rare plants or with
those outside the boundaries of the study area when methods are only based on
visits. By recovering the seeds that frugivores consumed, such interactions are more
likely to be detected. In addition, seed recovery also offers the possibility of obtain-
ing information on seed dispersal quality, such as seed viability after dispersal, ger-
mination capacity, or microhabitat suitability (Schupp et al. 2010). As previously
mentioned, such information allows moving forward towards seed dispersal effec-
tiveness networks, providing data on recruitment dynamics and effective ecosystem
service (Schleuning et al. 2015). Accordingly, the inclusion of methods based on
seed recovery is strongly recommended.
Fig. 7.2 Effects of

interaction sampling
method on Web asymmetry
and Links number. The
method did not affect web
asymmetry (F2,34 = 2.51
P = 0.095) whereas a
higher number of links was
detected in the networks
based on a combined
method of visit census (V)
and fecal analyses (F),
(F2,27 = 2.67, P = 0.05)
7.5 T
axonomical and Functional Composition of Seed
Dispersal Networks
7.5.1 Dispersers’ Guilds
Among the 43 studies, most (74%, n = 32) have focused on a single disperser guild,
13% (n = 6) and 9% (n = 4) of studies included two and three animal guilds, respec-
tively, and only 2% (n = 1) of the studies have considered all relevant disperser guilds
(Table 7.1). A strong bias was detected on the frequency of animal taxa studied in
seed dispersal networks (χ2 = 60.45, df = 4, N = 57, P < 0.001) with birds being the
most frequently studied seed dispersers. Seventy nine percent of the studies (n = 34)
included birds while terrestrial mammals, the second group most frequently studied,
appeared in 25% of the studies (n = 11) followed by bats (12%, n = 7); reptiles and
fish were accounted for in only 5% (n = 3) and 3.5% (n = 1) of the studies, respec-
tively. Within the group of terrestrial mammals, primates were the most frequently
studied followed by ungulates and rodents.
7.5.2 Keystone Species in Tropical Seed Dispersal Networks
Only 11 (25%) of the 43 revised studies identified the most important species based
on their contribution to network structure, yet using different methods for such pur-
pose. Some works used the contribution to network modularity (Olesen et al. 2007),
namely the within-module degree (z) and among module connectivity (c) values
(e.g., Donatti et al. 2011; Nogales et al. 2016); da Silva et al. 2015). Other studies
used the topological position of species within the network, i.e., centrality, with the
indexes betweenness centrality (BC), closeness centrality (CC), and degree central-
ity or standardized degree (kr) among others (González et al. 2010; Mello et al.
2015; Genrich et al. 2016). The third most frequently used method was the ad hoc
categorization of species as being part of the core or the periphery of the network
(Palacio et al. 2016; Ramos-Robles et al. 2016). Still, other studies followed an inte-
grated approach combining several methods (Sarmento et al. 2014; Vidal et al. 2014;
Ruggera et al. 2016). According to all those metrics, 70 species played disproportion-
ally important roles in these tropical seed dispersal networks. Of those 70 species, 26
were plants and 44 animals with one bird species (Catharus ustulatus) appearing in
two studies performed in Argentina and Panama as a “relevant species.” Hereafter, all
these species performing a relevant role (i.e., being network or module hubs or con-
nectors, belonging to the central core, or with high standardized degrees) will be
referred to as “keystone species” regardless of the metric used to determine such role.
Nonetheless, the coherence and matching of keystone species according to different
methodologies is poorly understood and warrants further research (Jordán et al. 2009;
Stevenson et al. 2015).
7.5.3 Keystone Dispersers
Animal keystone species belonged to 19 families, with uneven representations

(χ2 = 34.8, df = 18, N = 45, P = 0.01). The Paleotropical families Pycnonotidae and
Lybiidae (bulbuls and barbets) and the Neotropical Pipridae and Thraupidae (mana-
kins and tanagers) were expected to be more relevant than other families for seed
dispersal given their higher number of interactions, both at the network level and also
as connectors of different modules (Schleuning et al. 2014). The most frequent fami-
lies in the networks were Thraupidae (15%) and Turdidae (15%) followed by Pipridae
(11%), Cotingidae, Cracidae, Ramphastidae, and Tyrannidae (6% each), with all
other families represented by a single species, except the bat family Phyllostomidae
with two species (4%). These findings add to previous evidence supporting the
relevant role of Neotropical manakins and tanagers, both typical understory spe-
cies (Fleming et al. 1987). Neither bulbuls nor barbets were identified as keystone
families, probably due to the scarcity of data from the Paleotropics (Schleuning
et al. 2014). Interestingly, our results revealed other groups of keystone dispersers
including megafauna, monkeys, canopy specialist birds such as chachalacas, guans
(Cracidae), and toucanets (Ramphastidae), temperate migrants (e.g., thrushes;
Turdidae), and also phyllostomid bats.
7.5.4 Keystone Plants
A total of 34 plant species belonging to 16 families were identified as keystone in

their networks. The most frequently represented families were Melastomataceae
and Myrtaceae, which together represented 32% of all plants in the dataset.
Moraceae and Urticaceae represented 24% of the species (12% each) followed by
Rubiaceae (8%) and Solanaceae (6%), being the rest of the families represented
only by one species. However, these differences were not significant probably
owing to the scarcity of data (χ2 = 20.58, df = 15, N = 34, P = 0.15). All these plant
families have been previously highlighted as relevant for frugivores (Snow 1981;
Wheelwright et al.1984). Other important plant families for tropical frugivores,
such as Lauraceae and Palmae (Crome 1975; Snow 1981; Wheelwright et al.1984)
are, however, missing from the dataset analysed here. These families typically bare
large fleshy fruits, having a mastozoochory dispersal syndrome (Snow 1981;
Kuhlmann and Ribeiro 2016); thus, a possible explanation for the absence of these
families on the identified keystone species group may be the difficulty of detecting
the large animals that typically disperse large fruits and seeds. In contrast, the plant
species identified as keystone tend to bear small fruits usually preferred by small
birds. This is the case of Miconia (Melastomataceae), the most frequently detected
genus among the keystone plants, as well as many Rubiaceae species. The typical
fruits of these species are small juicy berries containing many tiny seeds. Plants
with these fruit types on the mentioned families are typical of early successional
stages with high colonization ability, thereby frequently appearing in cleared areas
and edges (Snow 1981; Saavedra et al. 2015; Silva et al. 2016).
Some studies found ecological conditions such as species abundance, and its
spatiotemporal variation, and morphological constraints as key drivers of network
roles (Vázquez et al. 2009b; Silva et al. 2016). Our results reveal a strong phyloge-
netic component on the identity of keystone species, which does not only result of
ecological contingency but is also determined by inherited characteristics shaped by
evolutionary history (Vázquez et al. 2009b). The identification of keystone species
and their effects on community stability are strongly relevant to understand evolu-
tionary patterns and ecosystem services delivery (Sakai et al. 2016). Therefore, the
interplay between drivers of keystone species, such as species abundance, func-
tional traits, and phylogeny needs to be further explored (Vázquez et al. 2009b).
7.6 F
unctional Traits of Keystone Species of Tropical Seed
Dispersal Networks
Previous attempts to explain why some species play a more relevant role in seed disper-
sal networks have evaluated several morphological and behavioral traits, of which the
most common are dietary specialization, body size, and migratory behavior (Donatti
et al. 2011; Sarmento et al. 2014; Schleuning et al. 2014; Vidal et al. 2014; Mello et al.
2015; Palacio et al. 2016). In the case of plants, most frequently studied traits were fruit
size, seed burden, fruit type, and life form (Donatti et al. 2011; Vidal et al. 2014; Palacio
et al. 2016; Ruggera et al. 2016). Accordingly, we compiled this information for the 70
species recorded as keystone in our database, as well as their IUCN conservation status
(www.iucnred.ist.org). When trait information was not available in source articles, in
addition to scientific literature, specialized databases were used (www.hbw.com,
animaldiversity.org, www.tropicos.org). The categories assigned owing to dietary spe-
cialization were obligate, partial, or opportunistic frugivores. A species was considered
an obligate or partial frugivore when fruit constitutes the majority (>50%) or a relevant
(20–30%) component of its diet, respectively, whereas frugivores that consume fruits
only occasionally were classified as opportunistic (Mello et al. 2015; Palacio et al.
2016). Animals up to 74 g of weight were classified as small sized, those in the range
75 to 250 g as medium, whereas large animals were those over 250 g and up to 40 kg
(Dirzo et al. 2014; Silva et al. 2016; Mello et al. 2015). Over such weight, species were
considered as megafrugivores (Dirzo et al. 2014). According to fruit diameter, plant
species were classified as small (<5 mm), medium (5–10 mm), large (11–50 mm), or
mega (>51 mm) and in multi- or single-seeded species according to seed number
(Wheelwright et al. 1984; Saavedra et al. 2015).
7.7 Keystone Dispersers’ Functional Traits
We found that most animal species identified as keystone where either obligate
(62.2%) or partial frugivores (24.4%), with less than 15% being opportunistic frugivo-
res (χ2 = 17.733, df = 2, P > 0.001). Interestingly, two thirds of the keystone species
(64%) were small frugivores, around 30% where either medium or large sized and
only 6% were megafrugivores (χ2 = 38.11, df = 3, P > 0.001). Only 14% of the key-
stone species were classified with higher risk of extinction (i.e., Near threatened,
Vulnerable) relative to 86% that were classified as Least Concern (χ2 = 24.2, df = 1,
P > 0.001). We detected that the categories of these three variables were not ran-
domly distributed; for instance, most obligate frugivores were small sized whereas
mega and large keystone species were most frequently partial frugivores (χ2 = 19.48,
df = 6, P > 0.005). Also, larger species tended to be in higher extinction risk
(χ2 = 16.04, df = 3, P = 0.001). In contrast, dietary specialization and extinction risk
were not correlated (χ2 = 1.17, df = 2, P = 0.57). To classify frugivores according to
the four variables studied (dietary specialization, body size, conservation status, and
migratory behavior) a Non-metric Multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) was
performed using the packages (vegan and FD in the R platform 3.2 (Dixon 2003;
Laliberté and Legendre 2010). We found an ordination of keystone species on sev-
eral groups coherent with previous analyses on trait distribution frequency. The
group gathering most species was that of small obligate frugivores; several species
of tanagers, manakins, and phyllostomid bats were the most frequently represented
(Fig. 7.3). Another group was that of medium to large partial frugivores of low con-
servation concern including several species of tucanets, chachalacas, guans, and
terrestrial and arboreal mammals such as opossums and howler monkeys. Most key-
stone species where not threatened; however, we detected two specific groups of
keystone dispersers that face an higher extinction risk, namely: some small and
medium-sized obligate frugivores such as tucanets and cotingas on one side, and two
mega dispersers, the Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra) and the lowland
tapir (Tapirus terrestris) (Fig. 7.3).
7.8 Keystone Plants Functional Traits
Keystone plants differed much in fruit size (χ2 = 9.6, df = 3, N = 27, P = 0.022).
Most frequent keystone species (78%) bore medium (5–10 mm) and small fruits
(>5 mm) while plants with larger fruits played more rarely such a role (Large:
11–50 mm, 18% and Mega: >51 mm, 4%). Most keystone plants produced berries
(52%) followed by drupes (18%) and achenes (11%). Keystone species were typi-
cally multi-seeded, with only 20% being single-seeded (χ2 = 9.14, df = 1, N = 28,
P = 0.002). Trees (55%) and shrubs (38%) were the most frequent life forms,
whereas herbs (3.5%) and lianas (3.5%) were scarcely represented (X2 = 23.27,
df = 3, N = 29, P < 0.001). In contrast to animal functional traits, there was not
interdependency of different plant traits and thus no further analyses were per-
formed. The threatened category is not shown as most species were classified as
non-evaluated.
Fig. 7.3 Keystone species Non-metric Multidimensional scaling (NMDS). Representation of key-
stone dispersers based on log transformed body size (showed in the isolines), dietary specialization
(diamonds: obligate frugivores, triangles: partial frugivores; squares: opportunistic frugivores),
and conservation status (Red: species at higher risk of extinction, green: low risk of extinction).
Ellipses denote dispersers with similar traits: SmOpLr Small, Opportunistic frugivores at Low risk
of extinction (tyranid), SmObLr Small, Obligate frugivores at Low risk (manakin and tanager),
SmObHr Small, Obligate frugivores at High risk (tucanet), MedObLr, MeObHr Medium Obligate
frugivores at Lower and Higher risk of extinction, respectively (tucanets), LaPaLr Large, Partial
frugivores at Low risk (cracid, opossum, howler monkey), MegaPaHr Megafauna, Partial frugivo-
res at High risk (tapir). Species inside brackets are representative of each group
7.9 T
rait-Based Niche Complementarity Among Network
Keystone Species
There is rather low consistency among previous studies on the role of animal species
traits to determine their relevance in seed dispersal networks. Some works did not
find a relationship between body size and species importance in network structure
(Schleuning et al. 2014, Vidal et al. 2014, Mello et al. 2015) while others suggested
that large animals tend to be the most relevant in the network (Donatti et al. 2011).
Dietary specialization has been pointed out as a pivotal trait with obligate and par-
tial frugivores playing the role of keystone species (Sarmento et al. 2014; Schleuning
et al. 2014; Mello et al. 2015; Pigot et al. 2016) other studies find that the only rel-
evant characteristic determining animal species contribution to dispersal network
was the threatened category, being keystone species those that are at higher risk of
extinction (Vidal et al. 2014).
Our approach based on multivariate analyses allowed the determination of
keystone frugivores integrating all relevant traits. Dietary specialization and body
size seem thus the pivotal variables determining the role of keystone species in
tropical seed dispersal networks (see also Pigot et al. 2016). Small-sized species of
obligate frugivores were the most frequent keystone group though with the condi-
tion of being obligate frugivores (Schleuning et al. 2014; Mello et al. 2015).
However, medium- to large- and mega-sized frugivores functioned as keystone spe-
cies, even when they have more generalized diets. These groups of keystone species
seem to provide functional complementarity to tropical dispersal networks. Namely,
(1) small specialized frugivores forming the core of the keystone species and likely
responsible for a large quantity of local seed dispersal of small- to medium-sized
seed species; and (2) large and mega-sized animals with a more generalized diet,
that may consume an array of fruits and seed types mobilized over long distances
(Jordano et al. 2007; Donatti et al. 2011; Escribano-Avila et al. 2014). This pattern
resembles a trait-based niche complementarity according to which closely related
species (in our case tanagers, manakins and thrushes) tend to share functional traits
(small-sized, obligate frugivores) and to disperse similar plants (Dehling et al. 2016;
Pigot et al. 2016). Conversely, unrelated species (cracids, toucanets, opossums,
howler monkeys, giant tortoises, and mega herbivores) exhibit obvious heteroge-
neous functional traits on size, behavior, and diet that may lead to wider arrays of
dispersed species likely related to plants and animals trait matching (Dehling et al.
2016; Pigot et al. 2016).
7.10 Conservation Implications
There is a growing concern that seed dispersal services might be compromised in

the future due to the decline and eventual extinction of frugivores populations
(Galetti et al. 2013). Large animals, which tend to play a preponderant role as dis-
persers of many fleshy-fruited plant species (Muñoz et al. 2016; Pigot et al. 2016)
are particularly threatened in many ecosystems due to hunting and poaching (Dirzo
et al. 2014), further threatening seed dispersal services (Galetti et al. 2013; Vidal
et al. 2013). Owing to a strong non-random matching in the morphologies of dis-
persers and fruits (Dehling et al. 2016), large-fruited and seeded plants are dispersed
by the larger frugivores in the community (Hamann and Curio 1999). Thus, larger-
fruited plants exhibit a scarcer coterie of frugivore partners than smaller-fruited
species (Crome 1975; Wheelwright et al. 1984; Donatti et al. 2011; Vidal et al.
2014; Muñoz et al. 2016; Palacio et al. 2016) and are more vulnerable to the loss of
their seed dispersers, eventually truncating their reproductive capacity (Wotton and
Kelly 2011). Large fruited and seeded plants are typically late-successional species
that play a unique role in ecosystems (Bello et al. 2015). Therefore, further attention
should be paid to the conservation status and the regeneration capacity of these
species in a world depauperated of large frugivores.
7.11 Conclusions
The last decades have seen substantial advances in our understanding of the struc-
ture and function of seed dispersal interactions and how they might shape tropical
ecosystems. Here, we identify two main functional groups of seed dispersers: one
homogeneous group of small, specialized, and abundant dispersers moving many
small seeds at the local scale, and another more heterogeneous group formed by
larger dispersers with lower abundances and dispersing both small- and large-
seeded fruits at larger regional scales. The recent advent of highly resolved, compre-
hensive, and quantitative seed dispersal networks encompassing whole communities
will surely pave the road to further advances in the near future. Such new studies are
vital to clarify global patterns on seed dispersal networks, characterize the role of
large herbivores and megafauna (including extinct species) in seed dispersal, and
further advance ecological network theory by incorporating temporal, spatial, and
evolutionary changes into this key ecosystem service.
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Chapter 8
Plant-Herbivore Networks in the Tropics
Antonio López-Carretero, Ek del-Val, and Karina Boege
Abstract Understanding the patterns and processes behind the high biological
diversity of tropical ecosystems has been one of the most important issues in mod-
ern ecology. Plant-herbivore interactions constitute an important percentage of bio-
diversity in the tropics, and their ecological and evolutionary importance has been
demonstrated in a large number of studies. However, it is only very recently that
plant-herbivore antagonistic interactions are being addressed from the perspective
of complex networks to evaluate how different factors influence their interaction
patterns. In this chapter, we provide a summary of the processes that have been
reported shaping the specialization and structuring of tropical plant-herbivore net-
works. From the limited availability of studies in such habitats we suggest that
plant-herbivore networks are spatiotemporally dynamic and are the result of multi-
ple non-exclusive processes where seasonality, variation in resource availability,
habitat type, disturbance regime and species-specific attributes contribute to struc-
turing these highly diverse and specialized antagonistic networks.
8.1 Introduction
Trophic interactions involving plants and their herbivores account for approxi-
mately 40% of global terrestrial biodiversity (Price 2002), which is mainly concen-
trated in tropical ecosystems (Novotny and Basset 2005; Lewinsohn et al. 2006;
Beck and Khen 2007), and also represent one of the major conduits of energy flow
to higher trophic levels (Futuyma and Agrawal 2009). The diversification of
A. López-Carretero (*)
Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de Buenos Aires,
Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
E. del-Val
Instituto de Investigaciones en Ecosistemas y Sustentabilidad, Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán, México
K. Boege
Instituto de Ecología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México,
Ciudad de México, México

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_8
112 A. López-Carretero et al.
herbivorous insects in the tropics is evolutionarily associated with plants (Futuyma

and Agrawal 2009; Forister et al. 2015), and the high diversity and specificity of
insect-plant interactions renders herbivory as one of the processes determinant in
the distribution and composition of plant species (Bagchi et al. 2014; Kempel
et al. 2015). Therefore, studying the different ecological and evolutionary pro-
cesses that influence the structure of plant-herbivore ecological networks is an
important step in understanding patterns of tropical biodiversity (Lewinsohn et al.
2005; Becerra 2015).
In biological communities, herbivorous species and plants interact with many
other species, originating an intricate network of trophic interactions. Network anal-
yses have been a useful tool to describe plant-animal interactions and to analyze
their role in the organization and dynamics of biodiversity in tropical ecosystems
(Bascompte and Jordano 2007). Furthermore, complex network analyses can be
informative to assess if the evolution of plants and their consumers occurs through
one-to-one coevolutionary processes or are the outcome of diffuse coevolution,
where the assemblage of multiple species play an important role. In particular, dif-
ferent metrics used to describe the structure of plant-herbivore networks can be
useful to identify evolutionary interaction units, defined by the species influencing
fitness of target species under diffuse coevolution (Thompson 1982). In spite of the
ecological and evolutionary importance of antagonistic plant-herbivore interactions,
just a few studies have examined these interactions from a network perspective in
the tropics.
In general, plant-herbivore networks are highly specialized mainly due to the
evolution of physical and chemical defenses of host plants and, in turn, the adapta-
tion of herbivores to such defenses (Wardhaugh et al. 2014; Becerra 2015; Forister
et al. 2015). Given this context, the preference of herbivores to feed on closely
related plants (Funk et al. 1995; Janz et al. 2001; Weiblen et al. 2006; Benítez-
Malvido and Dáttilo 2015) or those with similar leaf attributes (Becerra 1997;
Agrawal 2007) has been found to be one of the most important factors promoting
modularity in antagonistic networks (Thompson 1994; Prado and Lewinsohn 2004).
Furthermore, the ecological and phylogenetic mechanisms that originate the struc-
tural patterns of antagonistic networks have only recently begun to be explored
despite important prior advances in the identification and description of the struc-
ture of different plant-herbivore networks. Research from temperate ecosystems
has shown how specialization and structural attributes of plant-herbivore networks
are influenced by phylogenetic signals (Volf et al. 2017), intraspecific genetic vari-
ation of plants (Barbour et al. 2016; Lau et al. 2016), habitat restrictions, and spe-
cies attributes (Cagnolo et al. 2011) in addition to habitat disturbances (Valladares
et al. 2012).
In tropical ecosystems, patterns of plant-herbivore networks can vary with
respect to habitat disturbance (Villa-Galaviz et al. 2012; de Araújo et al. 2015;
Benítez-Malvido et al. 2014, 2016) and spatiotemporal variation in plant availabil-
ity (López-Carretero et al. 2016), host plant resistance (López-Carretero et al.
2016), herbivores specificity, and the degree of intimacy of interactions (Novotny
et al. 2010; Pires and Guimarães 2012). Even so, the study of processes influencing
8 Plant-Herbivore Networks in the Tropics 113
the specificity and structural patterns of plant-herbivore networks is still under

development. Therefore, the objective of this chapter is to provide an update on
these processes, particularly in tropical ecosystems. We first characterize the structural
patterns of tropical plant-herbivore networks in relation to other types of networks
in non-tropical habitats. In addition, we review how antagonistic networks vary
spatially and temporarily, and the biotic and abiotic factors influencing this variation.
Then, we address how habitat disturbance and the species-specific attributes of
plants and their herbivores affect the structure and resilience of antagonistic networks.
Finally, we provide a conclusion with future directions for the study of plant-herbivore
networks in the tropics.
8.2 Structure of Plant-Herbivore Interaction Networks
In contrast with mutualistic networks that tend towards generalization, antagonistic

networks are more specialized, less nested, and have greater modularity (Lewinsohn
et al. 2006; Thébault and Fontaine 2010; Sauve et al. 2014). Nevertheless, within
antagonistic networks, the degree of compartmentalization depends on the interact-
ing trophic guilds, the type of ecosystem, and even latitude. In the case of plant-
herbivore networks, specialization and hence modularity can vary as a function of
herbivore guilds, being highly specialized in the case of herbivores living inside the
plants (e.g., miners and galling insects), but less specialized in the case of free living
herbivores (e.g., suckers and chewers, Novotny et al. 2010, Pires and Guimarães
2012). Although there are not enough studies to perform formal analyses to com-
pare between temperate vs. tropical networks, a marked latitudinal gradient towards
a greater diversity (Novotny and Miller 2014), and specialization (Dyer et al. 2007,
Forister et al. 2015, but see Novotny et al. 2006, Stork 2007) of herbivores in the
tropics has been reported. From the available empirical evidence cited in this chap-
ter, we detected larger networks with greater specialization and a higher number of
rare hervibore species in tropical ecosystems. Other parameters, such as con-
nectance, modularity, and nestedness, seem to be equivalent between tropical and
temperate forests. However, more studies on plant-herbivore networks are needed
across large latitudinal gradients and among different ecosystems to assess signifi-
cant differences between temperate and tropical ecosystems.
8.3 Plant-Herbivore Interaction Networks in the Tropics
Tropical plant-herbivore interactions have been studied since long time ago (Janzen
1970; Coley 1983; Coley and Barone 1996); however, only recently the interaction
network approach has been considered in this area. The studies comprise evalua-
tions of different herbivore guilds, including leaf chewers (lepidopteran, orthop-
teran, and coleopteran), leaf miners (dipteran and lepidopteran), and sapsuckers
Fig. 8.1 Distribution of studies of plant-herbivorous networks in the tropical regions of the planet.
Each symbol represents the locations of the studies reviewed in this chapter. Symbol forms indi-
cate different orders of herbivorous insects (circles = Lepidoptera larvae, triangles = adult
Coleoptera, diamonds = dipteran larvae, square = Hemiptera, and stars = studies that include more
than one insect order). Colors represent the different life forms of the herbivorous host plants stud-
ied (blue = herbs, purple = vines, green = trees, red = more than one plant life form)
(hemipteran), which are concentrated in the Neotropical region, mainly focused on

plant herb hosts (Fig. 8.1 and Table 8.1). There is a lack of studies that incorporate
different orders of herbivores associated with host plants of different life forms. In
addition, there are some regions were plant-herbivore networks have not been
explored, in particular studies in tropical Africa are unknown (Fig. 8.1 and Table 8.1).
In general, studies have reported that tropical plant-herbivore networks have high
levels of specialization coinciding with other studies reporting diet breath of herbi-
vores being narrower in lower latitudes (Erwin 1991; Novotny et al. 2004, 2006;
Forister et al. 2015). Network size (i.e., species richness and number of interactions)
is quite variable as a function of the taxonomical level of different groups of herbi-
vores. In terms of network parameters, most studies in the tropics have found a
modular structure (Meskens et al. 2011; Villa-Galaviz et al. 2012; López-Carretero
et al. 2014; Wardhaugh et al. 2014; Bergamini et al. 2016) with the exception of
work by Eben and Espinosa de los Monteros (2015), in which they report a plant-
Chrisomelid network without a modular structure, in spite of being very special-
ized. A study in Australian rainforest reports similar levels of specialization in
plant-herbivore and flower visitor networks although the herbivore network was
modular and the flower visitor was nested (Wardhaugh et al. 2014). Thus, in this
case, the topology of interaction networks appears to be independent of the level of
specificity. Interestingly, some tropical food webs, although are extremely complex,
seem to be dominated by relatively few interactions (Novotny and Miller 2014).
Table 8.1 Information of the plant-herbivore networks studies included in this review
Factor evaluated NP L/A Order PF PS HF HS Region Habitat type Source
Phylogenetic signal M L CDL 1 22 6 55 Neo Bra Cerrado Savanna Bergamini et al. (2016)
Phylogenetic signal CHM A C 8 Ns 1 43 Ame Several tropical, Eben and Espinosa de los
subtropical and Monteros (2015)
temperate habitats
Host taxonomy and C G H M N NO A C 5 17 1 30 Neo Pan Rain forest Meskens et al. (2011)
phenotype
Forest canopy H A C 13 23 5 88 Aus Aus Rain forest Wardhaugh et al. (2014)
Plant diversity G A H 5 16 8 33 Ori Chi Evergreen subtropical Staab et al. (2015)
forest
Habitat type and C G H IE M V L L 20 56 12 176 Neo Mex Different coastal López-Carretero et al. (2014)
resource availability seasonal habitats
8 Plant-Herbivore Networks in the Tropics
Anti-herbivore defenses d ss L L 16 29 9 104 Neo Mex Different coastal López-Carretero et al. (2016)
seasonal habitats
Habitat disturbance C D H LD VR AL CDHL 1 2 ns ns Neo Mex Rain forest Benítez-Malvido et al. (2014)
Secondary succession C N M EC R H R L L 36 140 21 471 Neo Mex Dry forest Villa-Galaviz et al. (2012)
DNA barcodes use – A C 5 33 1 20 Neo CR Rain forest García-Robledo et al. (2013)
Forest fragmentation DI N AL CHL 1 1 9 29 Neo Mex Rain forest Benítez-Malvido et al. 2016
Interaction intimacy C H N ID M NO AL AHHyL ns 24 1 9 Neo Bra Cultivars and other Benitez-Malvido et al. (2015)
habitats
Herbivore guild ES HI AL CDHLOP 38 88 44 399 Oce PNG Rain forest Novotny et al. (2010)
NP network parameter evaluated, M modularity, c connectance, H network-level specialization, G generality, N nestedness, NO Niche overlap, IE interaction
evenness, V vulnerability, d species-level specialization, ss species strength, ES effective specialization, HI host plant isolation, LD linkage density, VR variance
ratio, EC extinction curve, R robustness, DI diversity of interactions, NO niche overlap. Herbivore developmental stage: L larval, A adult. Herbivore order: C
Coleoptera, D Diptera, H Hemiptera, Hy Hymenoptera, L Lepidoptera, O Orthoptera, P Phasmidae, A Acari. PF number of plant families, PH number of plant
species, HF number of herbivore families, HS number of herbivore species. Region: Ame several habitats types throughout the Americas, Neo neotropical, Aus
Australian, Ori oriental, Oce oceanian, Mex México, Bra Brazil, Chi China, CR Costa Rica, PNG Papua New Guinea. ns not specified
115
8.4 Spatiotemporal Variation of Plant-Herbivore Networks
In some tropical and non-tropical ecosystems where seasonality and climatic con-
ditions are not widely variable, specialization, and structure of plant-herbivore
networks remain stable over time and space (Wardhaugh et al. 2014; Kemp et al.
2016). However, the contrasting monthly and seasonal climatic variation (mainly
in precipitation and temperature) of some deciduous and sub-deciduous tropical
ecosystems affect the availability and quality of host plants (Janzen 1993; Coley
1998; Pearse and Hipp 2012) and therefore can promote important changes in
herbivore composition (Janzen 1993; Coley and Barone 1996), diet breath
(Scherrer et al. 2016), specialization, and structural patterns of plant-herbivore
networks (López-Carretero et al. 2014, 2016). For example, environments that
provide high richness and abundance of host plants (i.e., habitats rich in host spe-
cies with different life histories or rainy season) promote specialization, modular-
ity, and interaction evenness of plant-lepidopteran herbivore networks, as observed
in Mexican (López-Carretero et al. 2014) (Fig. 8.2b, c) and Brazilian tropical
forests (Scherrer et al. 2016). In contrast, in environments where resource avail-
ability for herbivores is restricted (i.e., poorly structured habitats and/or marked
dry season), selectivity and modularity of plant-herbivore networks decrease due
to the dominance of generalist herbivores (López-Carretero et al. 2014) that are
capable of expanding their host preferences in face of adverse conditions (Scherrer
et al. 2016, Fig. 8.2b, c).
The temporal increase in the availability and structural complexity of plant spe-
cies in the warmest and rainy months promote a great variety of microhabitats and
host plant richness, which in turn reduce niche overlap and promote a more equita-
ble distribution of food resources (i.e., interaction evenness) among herbivores in
the network (López-Carretero et al. unpublished data) (Fig. 8.2d). This pattern is
consistent with the notion that specialization of herbivores allows for the coexis-
tence of species through a fine distribution of trophic niches (Futuyma and Moreno
1988; Dyer et al. 2007; Lewinsohn and Roslin 2008). In this context, comparative
studies of plant-herbivore interaction networks in tropical wet vs. dry forests would
be revealing, and comparisons between seasonal temperate and tropical forests
could help to disentangle the influence of species diversity vs. seasonality on plant-
herbivore interaction networks (Dirzo and Boege 2008).
In addition, tropical plant communities show a marked vertical stratification, as
does the assembly of associated herbivores. For example, herbivore diversity is
greater in the canopy than in the understory, and consequently the faunistic similar-
ity between the two strata is low (Basset et al. 2003; Ribeiro and Basset 2007). This
is likely promoted by differences in abiotic conditions, the availability of good
quality foliage and predation risk between these strata (Van Bael et al. 2003; Boege
and Marquis 2006; Neves et al. 2014). Nevertheless, the ways in which the struc-
ture of herbivore networks varies with respect to vertical stratification are still
largely unknown.
Fig. 8.2 Spatiotemporal variation in selectiveness and structural patterns of plant-lepidoptera net-
work in a seasonal tropical ecosystem of México. (a) Weighted bipartite network between 176 cat-
erpillar species (right nodes) and 56 plant species (left nodes) with different life history. Linkage
width indicates the frequency of each herbivory interaction. (b) Variation of macroscopic network
parameters in different habitats types that vary in their complexity (PIO pioneer dune vegetation,
DUN coastal dune scrub, FFW tropical lowland floodplain forest with a wetland ecotone, SFY
recently established tropical lowland sub-deciduous forest, SFO lowland sub-deciduous forest in
advanced stage of succession) (López-Carretero et al. 2014). (c) Variation in network parameters
across seasonality in year 2011: Dry1 (April-March), Dry2 (May-June), Wet1(July-August), Wet2
(September-October) (Dry = Dry season, Wet = Rainy season). Different letters represent significant
differences (P < 0.05); and (d) Significant negative relation between monthly PC1 values (precipita-
tion + temperature) and herbivore niche overlap (P < 0.05). PC1 is a synthetic variable that describe
the simultaneous variation of precipitation and temperature, greater values of PC1 corresponded to
greater precipitation and temperature (López-Carretero et al., unpublished data)
8.5 I nfluence of Phylogeny, Species, and Genetic Diversity

on Plant-Herbivore Networks
Antagonistic plant-herbivore interactions are highly specialized as a result of different

ecological factors, including plant diversity, the biochemistry of host plants, and
historical factors (Ehrlich and Raven 1964; Weiblen et al. 2006; Futuyma and
Agrawal 2009; Richards et al. 2015). In particular, evolutionary history often plays
an important role in determining both community assemblages and species interac-
tion networks (Peralta 2016, Volf et al. 2017 but see Novotny et al. 2010). This
influence can be detected through phylogenetic signals found in the properties of
plant-herbivore interaction networks. In general, studies have shown that phyloge-
netic distances influence interacting species, modularity, and network nestedness
(Peralta 2016). For example, in a leaf beetle-plant interaction network in Panamá,
Meskens et al. (2011) found that plant phylogeny constrains herbivore modules and
therefore determines network parameters. However, Bergamini et al. (2016) reported
a strong phylogenetic signal for flower-head herbivores but a mild signal for inter-
acting plants. Other studies on tropical herbivore communities in New Guinea have
found that host phylogenetic distance explains a significant fraction of the variance
in herbivore community similarity for some herbivore guilds (Novotny et al. 2010).
In particular, caterpillar species show higher phylogenetic clustering than coleopter-
ans and orthopteroids (Weiblen et al. 2006). However, recent studies from temperate
forest showed that not all levels of host plant phylogeny are equal in their effect on
structuring plant-herbivore food web, which depends on the specialization of insect
guild considered (Volf et al. 2017).
In some cases, plant defensive traits do not correlate with plant phylogeny
(Becerra 1997; Novotny et al. 2010) but are determined by local environmental and
ecological factors. For example, although the interactions between Diabroticina bee-
tles (Chrysomelidae) and their host plants (Cucurbitaceae) have been considered to
be the product of a coevolutionary process directed by the secondary metabolites of
hosts (Metcalf 1986); recently, Eben and Espinosa de los Monteros (2015) showed
that the structural patterns of plant-chrysomelid networks do not correspond with
plant phylogeny but are rather related to the chemical and morphological similarity
of the host plants.
8.5.1 Plant Diversity
Although plant diversity has been found to influence the stability of food webs
(Haddad et al. 2011), its effects on plant-herbivore network parameters has been
scarcely studied. Staab et al. (2015) investigated a plant-hemipteran network in a
gradient of plant diversity in subtropical China, and concluded that the number
and abundance of host species was not determinant for network structure as mod-
ularity and specialization remained constant across the gradient. This could be
due to the specific feeding behavior and particular morphological structures char-
acteristic of sap-sucker insects, which feed only on plant taxa to which they are
adapted (Walling 2008). In the case of caterpillars, for example, levels of specific
selectivity and species strength in plant-lepidopteran networks seem to be better
explained by foliar host plant traits than their relative abundance (López-Carretero
et al. 2016).
8.5.2 Genetic Diversity
Intraspecific genotypic variation in plant traits can also have an important influence
in herbivore communities (Whitham et al. 2006), food web complexity (Barbour
et al. 2016), and hence in plant-herbivore interaction networks in general. For exam-
ple, an analysis of genotype-species network has revealed that genotypic variation
in Populus angustifolia influences modularity, nestedness, centralization, and spe-
cies co-occurrence of the assemblages of associated herbivores (Lau et al. 2016).
The influence of genotypic variation in plant-herbivore networks, however, has not
been assessed in tropical systems and requires further attention. Incorporating the
evolutionary history and genetic variation of species into the study of plant-herbivore
interaction networks can greatly contribute with our understanding of community
assembly rules and processes, community dynamics, and resilience.
8.6 H
ow Host Plant and Herbivorous Traits Can Affect
Plant-Herbivore Networks
8.6.1 Host Defensive Traits
Foliar damage inflicted by herbivores strongly affects plant growth and reproduc-
tion (Rausher and Feeny 1980; Marquis 1984; Maron and Kauffman 2006).
Therefore, this antagonistic interaction results in continuous evolutionary processes
influenced by reciprocal selection. During these processes, plants express defensive
traits that reduce herbivore damage and in turn, herbivores adapt to the defensive
strategies of plants (Ehrlich and Raven 1964; Thompson 2005). In the tropics, recip-
rocal selection can be so intense that dissimilarity in plant defensive traits is posi-
tively associated with herbivore diversity and specialization (Novotny et al. 2002;
Weiblen et al. 2006; Forister et al. 2015). For example, in tropical plant genera that
maintain enormous herbivore richness, such as Inga (Kursar et al. 2009), Bursera
(Becerra 1997, 2007), 2015), and Piper (Richards et al. 2015), the diversity of
defensive metabolites is positively related with the diversification and specialization
of herbivores, both at ecological and geological scales (Gentry 1982, 1989; Richards
et al. 2015).
Although coevolutionary processes involving the continuous defense and counter-
defense of plants and their herbivores have been referenced to explain the high speci-
ficity of plant-herbivore interactions (Thompson 1994; Coley and Barone 1996; Prado
and Lewinsohn 2004) the influence of specific physical and chemical defensive plant
traits on the specialization and structuring of plant-herbivore networks has been prac-
tically unexplored. A recent study in a Mexican tropical forests showed that the simul-
taneous expression of foliar toughness, trichome density, and phenolic content in
different host species influences the selectivity of caterpillars and the strength of plant
species (trophic importance; López-Carretero et al. 2016). In particular, host species

with high foliar toughness and low contents of foliar p henolic compounds were related
to high species strength and selectiveness, which suggest that plants with this combi-
nation of attributes represent an important food resource for the assemblage of spe-
cialist herbivores in the network. On the other hand, during the dry season, host
species with high trichome density and leaf phenolic content were consumed by a
small number of highly selective herbivorous species capable of feeding on this com-
bination of leaf attributes (López-Carretero et al. 2016).
Leaf morphology can also play an important role in the structure of plant-
herbivore networks. For example, in a Chrysomelinae-plant network in Barro
Colorado Island, Panama, the architecture of immature leaves forming standing
pools in some host families (Zingiberales) but not in others (Arecales and Poales)
have influenced the adaptive zones for different hispine beetles influencing as a
consequence the modularity within this interaction network (Meskens et al. 2011).
8.6.2 Herbivore Feeding Behavior
The specificity and intimacy (i.e., physiological dependence) of plant-herbivore

interactions, which transcend the general structure of herbivory networks, vary as a
function of the different herbivore guilds, plant developmental stage, and/or organs
consumed (Novotny et al. 2010). In the tropics, the degree of specialization of differ-
ent insect guilds that consume plants varies enormously, and the percentages of spe-
cialization of different guilds is granivorous (99%), leaf miners (96%), frugivores
(83%), leaf chewers (56%), sap suckers (56%), xylophages (24%), and root feeders
(10%) (Novotny and Basset 2005). In general, herbivorous guilds with low mobility
that consume highly defended plants (e.g., lepidopteran leaf chewers) or those with
high physiological dependence on their hosts (e.g., leaf miners and gall-inducing
insects) have highly specialized and modular interaction networks, in comparison
with more generalist herbivorous guilds (e.g., phloem suckers, root eaters, borers).
However, because most studies on plant-herbivore networks have focused on exter-
nal leaf eaters guilds (particularly on caterpillars and chewing beetles) for practical
reasons, these studies may not be ecologically representative of all plant-herbivore
networks (Novotny et al. 2010). In fact, studies of herbivore networks including
endophagous herbivores or root feeders are nonexistent (Fig. 8.1).
8.7 H
abitat Disturbance and Plant-Herbivore Interaction
Network Resilience
Ecosystems are in constant change due to natural and anthropogenic disturbances

and as a consequence, species interactions are modified after perturbation. Natural
disturbance in forests is generally associated with changes in tree canopy, increased
light availability, and drier conditions. These sudden changes imply the disappearance
of some plant species and their associated specialist herbivores, but also facilitate
the production of fresh leaves on the remaining plants representing an increase in
resource availability for different herbivore species. Some studies have reported that
canopy openness is a determinant factor for lepidopteran richness and abundance
after disturbance (Barlow et al. 2007; Hawes et al. 2009) but hemipterans have
shown differential impacts depending on the species (Osborn 1935; Wolcott 1941).
More recently, Grimmbacher and Stork (2009) investigated changes in beetle
assemblages in a fragmented tropical forest in Australia, following the passage of
tropical cyclone Larry finding that communities were similar to their pre-hurricane
condition since only 5% of the species was found to have changed.
A logical prediction after the empirical evidence on the impacts of disturbance
on herbivore communities is that plant-herbivore network parameters should also be
affected by such perturbations. However, there are only a handful of studies address-
ing this prediction. Valladares et al. (2006, 2012) investigated changes in a plant-
herbivore network in the Argentinean Chaco forest after forest fragmentation and
found that species richness, network size, and connectance diminished as the forest
area decreased as a function of the area of forest remnants. Benítez-Malvido et al.
(2014, 2016) assessed anthropogenic perturbation on a plant-arthropod network
comparing forest gaps and forest edges finding that the network properties were not
affected by disturbance. Villa-Galaviz et al. (2012) investigated if plant-lepidopteran
network structure was recovered during forest succession and found that indeed,
after few years of land abandonment all network parameters are indistinguishable
from those found in mature undisturbed forests. Therefore, with the available infor-
mation, it appears that plant-herbivore network attributes in the tropics are resilient
to natural and anthropogenic perturbations (as long as the disturbed area is sur-
rounded by sources of the original biodiversity), but further investigations are
needed. In fact, a recently published global analysis of the effect of land-use inten-
sity on plant-herbivore networks compared 72 individual networks and found that
some parameters are affected by land-use change. In particular, the most susceptible
parameter is network connectance, which increases under high levels of anthropo-
genic alteration due to a decrease in specialization. This suggests that specialist
herbivores are more susceptible to disturbance (de Araújo et al. 2015).
8.8 Concluding Remarks and Future Directions
Records of plant-herbivore interactions for used in network analyses have been

based on small geographic areas. Hence, recorded trophic interactions have only
included a small fraction of local floristic diversity and often considering only com-
mon plant species or plants of the same taxonomic group or life story (Fig. 8.1).
Because the estimation of herbivore specificity and the emergent network structural
patterns depend on the diversity, composition, and life history of the plants consid-
ered (Novotny et al. 2006; Weiblen et al. 2006), estimates of network-level and
species-level specialization in tropical forests are still elusive. This demonstrates the
importance of including greater ecological and taxonomic amplitude in studies on

tropical plant-herbivore networks (Novotny et al. 2010).
Furthermore, the vast majority of studies on herbivory networks have focused on
characterizing and evaluating variation of metrics that aim to capture the overall
structure of a network, considering macroscopic parameters such as modularity,
interaction evenness, robustness, and network-level specialization. Very few studies
have included species-level metrics (i.e., species-level specialization, species
strength, role of species, and food preferences). In solely focusing on macroscopic
network parameters, important information on the dynamics of specific entities that
constitute a network (of species) may be missing. This is of obvious importance
considering that plant-herbivore interactions are highly specie-specific and are
finely regulated according to the attributes of plant and herbivore species.
Additionally, given the importance of anti-herbivore defenses in patterns of tropical
plant-herbivore interactions, the role of different chemical (i.e., saponins, alkaloids,
and/or cyanogens compounds), and biotic defenses (i.e., ants associated with extra-
floral nectaries) should also be considered in the study of process that influences the
configuration of herbivory networks.
Until recent years, a handicap for the study of plant-herbivore networks in the
tropics was the vast undescribed diversity, particularly for insect groups (Novotny
and Miller 2014). Accessible molecular tools such as DNA barcoding represent
today a viable opportunity to improve our knowledge on plant-herbivore networks
and make network comparisons across regions and ecosystems possible. For exam-
ple, García-Robledo et al. (2013) evaluated a plant-leaf-roller beetle interaction net-
work through DNA barcoding and demonstrated that host plant identifications at the
species level are accurate providing a sample size of four individuals per herbivore
and per plant. Because this methodology is a cost-effective strategy for reconstruct-
ing plant-herbivore interactions we expect to see more studies in tropical systems
using this approach in the coming years, which will enhance our understanding of
the ecology and evolution of species assemblages in the tropics.
In addition, new statistical methods proposed to estimate diet breath may allow
to incorporate plant traits to the metrics and increase our understanding of the
factors influencing plant-herbivore interaction networks. For example, Fordyce
et al. (2016) have recently proposed an ordination methodology to quantify diet
breath, based not only in the associations of plants and herbivores, but also includ-
ing the multivariate distances among plants in ordination space.
Finally, incorporating the other trophic levels can be revealing as well. Some
authors are starting to test weather observed patterns in plant-herbivore networks
constructed from field data are related with herbivore preferences or other factors
such as predation and competition and have experimentally demonstrated that
herbivore preference can explain the modular structure in their leafhopper-plant
network (Augustyn et al. 2016).
Acknowledgements While writing the manuscript, EDV and KB were funded by PAPIIT-UNAM
IN211916, SEP CONACYT 2015-255544 and ALC by PDTS 2600/14 (CONICET). KB acknowl-
edges logistic support by Rubén Pérez-Ishiwara.
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Chapter 9
Host-Parasite Networks: An Integrative
Overview with Tropical Examples
Sybelle Bellay, Fabrício Hiroiuki Oda, Karla Magalhães Campião,

Fábio Hideki Yamada, Ricardo Massato Takemoto,
and Edson Fontes de Oliveira
Abstract The lack of ecological studies on parasite species is contradictory with

their high diversity. In this context, the ecological network approach has drawn
attention to patterns of tropical host-parasite interactions; however, it is still very
restricted to a few taxonomic groups. In tropical regions, studies on host-parasite
networks have encompassed specially fish, amphibian hosts, and malaria parasite
communities of birds. High specificity is peculiar to parasites, either considering the
host species or the site of infection. Variations in specificity indicate differentiated
structural patterns between ecto- and endoparasites networks, as well as larval and
adult stages of parasites, influencing the values of connectivity, nestedness, and
modularity. Host characteristics also influence the structure of networks, including
phylogenetic relationships and diet. Similarly to free-living species in ecosystems
suffering the influences of environmental change, parasite species may also be
extinct due to primary extinctions of hosts or possibly present new patterns of inter-
action due to the arrival of invasive species in the environment. New studies should
S. Bellay (*) • R.M. Takemoto

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia de Ambientes Aquáticos Continentais,
Núcleo de Pesquisas em Limnologia, Ictiologia e Aquicultura, Laboratório de
Ictioparasitologia, Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
F.H. Oda
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Promoção da Saúde,
Centro Universitário Cesumar, Maringá, Paraná, Brazil
K.M. Campião
Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná,
Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil
F.H. Yamada
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Regional do Cariri,
Crato, Ceará, Brazil
E.F. de Oliveira
Departamento de Engenharia Ambiental, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia
Ambiental, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Campus Londrina,
Londrina, Paraná, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_9
128 S. Bellay et al.
explore network patterns between tropic and non-tropic environments, in addition

to the use of molecular tools to identify especially cryptic parasites, which may
provide better-supported results.
9.1 Introduction
Parasites are hidden components of ecological communities, comprising approxi-

mately 40% of the species described worldwide (Dobson et al. 2008)—a scope in
which the tropics retain a large number of species yet to be described. These “invis-
ible” organisms play an important role in ecosystems (Holt and Boulinier 2005) for
their ability to directly or indirectly affect host species at different levels of organi-
zation (i.e., individual, population, and community levels) (Poulin 1999; Wood and
Johnson 2015). Lafferty and Kuris (1999) stated that the complexity and ubiquity of
host-parasite interactions are good arguments when considering parasitism to assess
anthropogenic impacts on aquatic systems. Nevertheless, parasites have been
neglected in the scope of conservation or management strategies (Gómez and
Nichols 2013; Dougherty et al. 2015).
Each parasite species exhibits a degree of specialization by its resource (e.g., host
species or available microhabitat). Ecto- and endoparasites are exposed to different
selection pressures and outcomes (see Thompson 1994) when exploring the host,
which creates differentiated patterns in the organization of the communities. In addi-
tion, a wide variation occurs in the distribution and intensity of their interactions with
the host species (Thompson 1994; Poulin 2007). These variations are usually related
to biological, ecological, and/or phylogenetic aspects (Poulin et al. 2013).
Over the past few years, a remarkable number of studies have used network
analysis to assess the biodiversity, ecological processes, and relationships between
community structure and functioning in tropic and non-tropic environments (Hagen
et al. 2012; Heleno et al. 2014). In ecological parasitology, the network approach
has been used seeking to understand a wide variety of issues, for example, (1) the
role of parasitic biodiversity in ecosystem functioning, the transmission of parasitic
diseases via social or sexual contacts, (2) influence of structural attributes of host
species and their dynamics regarding food webs, (3) effect of species interaction on
the structure of networks, (4) coevolutionary components within a larger system,
and (5) community response to disturbances such as migration, extinction, or bio-
logic invasion (Vázquez et al. 2005; Chen et al. 2008; Dallas and Cornelius 2015;
Strona and Lafferty 2016). In a review synthesizing the findings from network anal-
yses of host-parasite interactions and food webs, Poulin (2010) concluded that the
benefits of this approach far outweigh its disadvantages.
Even though many interactions between parasites and vertebrate hosts are
known, this chapter provides an approach of ecological networks on the interactions
between fish and amphibians along with their parasites, in addition to malaria
parasite communities of birds in the tropics. Furthermore, we also demonstrate
other examples of interactions, such as host-bat fly networks.
9 Host-Parasite Networks: An Integrative Overview with Tropical Examples 129
9.2 E
nvironments and Host Characteristics with Possible
Implications in Networks
By analyzing the data available in Bellay et al. (2015a), we observe that the patterns
of fish-parasite networks, such as connectivity and nestedness, differ between tropical
and temperate environments (Fig. 9.1), having resulted from more specialized inter-
actions in the tropics, reducing connectivity and nestedness; even though both the
modularity and species richness showed no differences between environments.
Specialization did not differ between the tropical and temperate sites from the para-
site perspective in multihost malaria parasite communities of birds (Svensson-
Coelho et al. 2014). Furthermore, studies on lizards suggest that possible
relationships between latitude and parasitic load occur due to the host’s life history
(Salkeld et al. 2008). Parasite-host interactions are expected to present different
patterns in relation to the taxonomic groups involved, with greater evidence than
between latitudes.
It is expected that the composition of the host community influences parasite
richness since a higher diversity of hosts represents a wider range of resources for
Fig. 9.1 Comparison between tropical and temperate environments regarding four parameters
from 44 fish-parasite networks. (a) Species richness corresponds to the total number of species in
the network (parasites + hosts); (b) Connectance; (c) Nestedness; (d) Modularity. Middle point:
Mean; Box: Standard Error; Whisker: Standard deviation. The significance of the Mann-Whitney
test was p < 0.05. Data available in Bellay et al. (2015a)
parasites (Hudson et al. 2006). Similarly, host and parasite abundance play an
important role at determining network structure. If trait matching underlies potential
interactions between species, abundance would determine their dynamic (Canard
et al. 2014). Empirical evidence indicates the occurrence of a few host traits, such as
abundance, body size, and diet, mostly contributing to the maintenance of parasite
diversity and network structure (Dallas and Cornelius 2015).
9.2.1 Host Specificity and Phylogenetic History
The combination of varying levels of host specificity and abundance contributes

to the high asymmetry observed in host-parasite networks. Specialist parasites
tend to interact with hosts presenting high parasite richness, whereas generalist
parasites tend to interact mainly with hosts containing low parasite richness
(Fortuna et al. 2010). This nested pattern, which is more evident in host-parasite
networks from temperate latitudes (Fig. 9.1c), may be related to host abun-
dance. High host abundance may contribute to harboring richer parasite faunas,
with higher proportion of rare specialists (Vázquez et al. 2005). Understanding
the mechanisms beneath the nested pattern in host-parasite networks might also
contribute to quantify the importance of neutrality in ecological interactions
(Krishna et al. 2008; Canard et al. 2014).
The interaction of hosts and parasites encompasses a high degree of intimacy
and adaptation between species (Fortuna et al. 2010). When different host spe-
cies share dietary, behavioral or habit preferences, the formation of modules in
the network is enhanced (Bellay et al. 2011; Lima-Junior et al. 2012; Bellay et al.
2013). Therefore, sharing ecological traits favors parasite sharing, which in turn
favors the formation of modules. Ecological and phylogenetic groups of related
host species can promote modularity in a way that the similarity (e.g., phyloge-
netic, ecological, or functional) is higher among species within the same module
(Fortuna et al. 2010; Bellay et al. 2011; Lima-Junior et al. 2012; Bellay et al.
2013). This has been observed in several networks, including fish (Fortuna et al.
2010; Bellay et al. 2011; Lima-Junior et al. 2012) and reptile (Brito et al. 2014)
hosts along with their parasites, highlighting the importance of historical and
ecological processes to network structure.
9.2.2 Host Body Size
Host body size has a positive relation to parasite species richness for a broad spec-
trum of host taxa (Kamiya et al. 2014; Campião et al. 2015b). Nonetheless, it is
expected that such influential trait played an important role in the architecture of
host-parasite networks. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that body size is an impor-
tant trait determining network structure and stability in ecological networks
(Woodward et al. 2005). Dallas and Cornelius (2015) found that fish biomass is
important predicting nestedness, which is influenced to host body size. These find-
ings suggest that species in antagonistic networks may be defined by host traits,
such as body mass.
9.2.3 Host Diet
For many parasite taxonomic groups of fish of a tropical floodplain, host diet is an
important factor affecting host-parasite interaction although weaker and less con-
served than phylogeny (Lima et al. 2016). For endoparasites, hosts that share food
items are also more likely to share parasites (Benesh et al. 2014). Consequently,
hosts that consume a wide variety of food items harbor a higher amount of parasite
species (Chen et al. 2008; Locke et al. 2014). An intriguing finding is a host with the
highest amount of shared parasites belonging to low trophic level species (i.e., they
are preyed upon by other species of fish or birds) and with omnivorous diets (Lima
et al. 2016). A possible explanation would be associated with feeding behavioral,
exposing it to infection by free-living parasites, eggs, or cysts.
Many parasites trophically transmitted are able to furnish ecological information
on the links between their host and other organisms in a given environment, where
parasites may indicate long-term feeding information and ontogenetic changes in
the host’s diet (Marcogliese 2005). During ontogeny, the host may undergo niche
shifts and display feeding specialization; for instance, adults often use different
resources other than larvae or juveniles, thus affecting the host-parasite network.
Changes in the parasitic community of Prochilodus lineatus (Characiformes,
Prochilodontidae) during its ontogenetic shifts were also supported by Lizama et al.
(2005). Juvenile individuals of this host species live in lagoons until 2 years, subse-
quently living in river channels (Fig. 9.2). Such changes in transition and adaptation
expose the adult host to a higher degree of parasitism.
Obviously, throughout all life stages, the resources are substitutable for the most
of host species; even though it may occur a certain degree of overlap in resource use
among stages. A host species with a broad diet can be less vulnerable to secondary
extinction; however, it could be an ontogenetic specialist (with several stages, each
consuming a different resource) (Rudolf and Lafferty 2011). Seasonal shifts may
also influence the characteristics of interaction networks by changing the availabil-
ity of food and host species density. Zarazúa-Carbajal et al. (2016) showed the
importance of biotic and abiotic factors in the dynamics of host-bat fly interactions
in temperate environments. It is necessary to assess the approach of seasonality in
tropical parasite-host networks.
Fig. 9.2 Schematic representation of the variation in the parasite species composition in the
Streaked prochilod, Prochilodus lineatus in a tropical floodplain. Ontogenetic shifts in the diet and
habitat transition during the host developmental stages (i.e., from juvenile stage to adult stage) are
factors driving the variation in the parasite species composition (circles). Colorful circles represent
the parasite species. Photos credits: Celso Ikedo (fish)
9.3 Parasite Characteristics Influencing Network Topology
The patterns observed in the topology of host-parasite networks result from the
match of several features of both interacting parts. Among these features, the amount
of host species that a parasite is able to interact with is undoubtedly a crucial factor
in network ecology. Host specificity is believed to be an intrinsic species attribute,
with some extent of phylogenetic signal as it tends to be more similar among closely
related taxa (Krasnov et al. 2011). It can be expressed as the amount or the diversity
of hosts a parasite is able to colonize. Moreover, host specificity is not a fixed char-
acter; it can vary within a species according to the different localities of its geo-
graphic range or influences of the characteristics of host populations (e.g., body size
and life stage) (Fig. 9.3a); in addition, it may be influenced especially by the com-
position of the host community (Fig. 9.3b), stressing the importance of the whole
ecosystem in the organization of each network. This demonstrates the different
scales of a study on host-parasite interactions.
Hosts represent both the habitat and food resource to parasites and are generally
explored by parasite species from different lineages and with different life strategies,
such as endoparasites or ectoparasites as well as parasites with simple or complex life
Fig. 9.3 Host-parasite networks. (a) Interaction network at the population level of hosts and their
parasites where each node is an individual, which may interact with a differentiated number of para-
sites reflecting the influence of a particular host characteristics (e.g., sex or size) on the interaction
pattern; (b) Host-parasite interaction network at the community level where each node is a species
and the interactions reflect the total interactions observed in their populations. Squares and circles
represent the parasite species and size of the symbols, the number of interactions. Hosts are illus-
trated in drawings of frogs. Data from parasite community available in da Graça et al. (2017)
cycles. This variety in the ways that parasites exploit a resource may increase the
diversity of parasites associated with each host species (Bellay et al. 2013). Parasites
of different species may exhibit different levels of host specificity, dependence,
asymmetry, strength, and complementary specialization in such networks (Bellay
et al. 2015b). In turn, high parasite specificity favors the formation of modules, while
low parasite specificity contributes to an increased amount of links in ecological
networks. Studies conducted in the Neotropics with amphibian hosts and their meta-
zoan parasites demonstrated that the high prevalence of parasite species associated
with a broad range of host species contributed to the high connectance and nestedness
measures observed in this system (Campião et al. 2015a, b).
The variation in the degree of specificity among parasites with different life strate-
gies and stages is also an important determinant of network structure. For instance,
fish ectoparasites tend to show higher host specificity than the endoparasites associ-
ated with these hosts (Bellay et al. 2015a; Fig. 9.4). However, due to the strong
phylogenetic signal in parasitism strategy, it is still not clear whether the influence is
the mode of life itself or other intrinsic property of the parasite clade. Networks
including only fish ectoparasites have proved significantly modular and weakly
nested due to higher host specificity (Lima-Junior et al. 2012; Braga et al. 2014).
Parasites at larval stage are normally generalists in fish hosts (Bellay et al. 2013),
which is probably a strategy to enhance the chance of completing the transmission
cycle through different hosts. Moreover, parasites in larval stages are important
connectors in modular networks due to their low host specificity (Bellay et al. 2013).
In fact, the topology of fish-parasite networks is more closely related to the parasite
developmental stage than to their lineages. Therefore, the presence of parasite larval
stages may increase the strength of trophic links, contributing to the stability of
ecological networks.
In brief, the amount of interactions of a parasite species in the network might
reflect a trade-off between the benefit of having alternative resources (broader host
availability) and the cost of developing adaptations that allow such associations
Fig. 9.4 Fish-parasite interaction network of the upper Paraná River floodplain, Brazil. (a)
Bipartite network considering ectoparasites (yellow squares) and endoparasites (green circles); (b)
unipartite host network, the links indicate that ectoparasite species sharing; (c) unipartite host
network, the links indicate that endoparasite species sharing. In (b) and (c), red triangles corre-
spond to the hosts and the thickness of the links indicates the intensity of parasite species are shar-
ing by host species. Data available in Takemoto et al. (2009)
(Poulin 2007). To completely understand why some parasite species are associated
with a broad spectrum of hosts, while some rely on a single host species, is still
something to be inquired. Notwithstanding, it is a key factor underlying the topology
of host-parasite networks. All of the varying patterns in host specificity above men-
tioned and discussed have profound influences on network topologies. So far, the
evidence we have reached indicates that the presence of generalist parasites increases
connectivity and nestedness measures, while the presence of specialists contributes
to the formation of modules in host-parasite networks (Bellay et al. 2013; Campião
et al. 2015b).
9.4 Robustness
Host extinctions or population decline may compromise the structure of parasite

communities, as observed in a study on the fish-parasite network of the Upper
Paraná River floodplain, Brazil (Dallas and Cornelius 2015). From a context of
host-parasite interactions viewpoint, Pascual and Dunne (2006) defined robustness
as an estimator of network structure maintenance when facing host species loss
considering the secondary extinctions of parasite species.
Environmental changes, as well as epidemiological outbreaks, may culminate in
the exclusion of host populations, destabilizing and significantly altering the struc-
ture of parasite communities (see Lafferty 1997). In this context, the intensity of the
removal effect of host species on a host-parasite network depends on the pattern of

distribution of species interactions, whether they are generalists (i.e., interact with
many species) or specialists (i.e., interact with few species), as well as their func-
tional roles in the network (Guimerà and Amaral 2005; Pascual and Dunne 2006;
Estrada 2007).
The influence of local extinctions of host species on the structure of host-parasite
networks may be distinct for communities of ecto- and endoparasites, mainly due to
different host specificities (Bellay et al. 2015a). Ecological networks have complex
structures that may also vary according to the environmental conditions and their
spatial and temporal variations, which govern the diversity of species and their inter-
actions. In this sense, the introduction of new competitors and pathogens is a factor
that may cause the decline of populations or even local extinctions (Davis 2003).
9.5 Parasites and Species Introduction
Species introductions into new environments may radically alter native communities,
causing losses in local biodiversity (Michelan et al. 2010), especially in communi-
ties with very specific interactions such as those observed in the tropics. Invasions
of potential hosts may alter the structural patterns of the networks, promoting inter-
action ruptures and cascades of parasite extinctions due to the competition between
native and introduced hosts. Among the species of native parasites, those with a
higher degree of specificity regarding the use of hosts would be the most sensitive
to invasions due to a higher probability of extinction of their hosts. Table 9.1
describes some scenarios and possible changes in the structure of parasite-host net-
works as a function of species introduction.
Table 9.1 Possible scenarios of introduction in host-parasite networks

Event Scenario Structure
Introduced host 1. Parasite with high specificity Network structure will present
species has being restricted the host species few changes with increasing
parasites that can phylogenetically close to the interactions only inside the
infect native hosts hosts in regions native to the module
parasite
2. Parasite transmitted trophically Network structure will show few
but restricted to hosts changes with increased
phylogenetically close to hosts in interactions between some
native regions to the parasite but modules
with similar eating habits
3. Simple-cycle (i.e., monoxenous) Network structure will present
generalist parasite (ectoparasite) changes with increased
connectivity and increased
interactions between modules
with possible small grouping of
modules
Table 9.1 (continued)
Event Scenario Structure
4. Generalist parasite transmitted Network structure will change
trophically but restricted to hosts with increasing interactions inside
with similar eating habits modules and between modules
(endoparasite)
5. Complex cycle (i.e., Network structure will present
heteroxenous) parasite transmitted changes with increased
trophically but generally to connectivity and increased
intermediate hosts, which infects interactions between modules
by penetration into the skin with possible small grouping of
modules
6. Strong competitor generalist Number of native parasites
parasite excluding native parasite species may decrease; network
species with greater connectivity
7. Strong competitor parasite with Number of native parasite species
high specificity and restricted host will decrease within the modules
species phylogenetically close to
the host in native regions of the
parasite
8. Generalist parasite and Reduction in the number of host
pathogenic to new hosts in the species and consequently of
region introduced with possible native and specialist parasites;
elimination of populations of high connectivity among species
these hosts that remain in the network and
low or absent modularity
The invasive host 9. Invasive species of host acts as Increased connectivity and
species acquires reservoir for the parasite acquired interactions between modules
parasites from the in the introduced region and is with possible clustering of small
native hosts expected increase of the parasite modules with related hosts
abundance in the natural
environment in other species of
native hosts but restricted in
phylogenetically close hosts
10. Invasive species of hosts acts as a The increase of the connectivity
reservoir for the parasite of the and increase of the interactions
introduced region and with the between modules with possible
increase of the parasite abundance grouping of small modules
in the natural environment other
species of native hosts are
gradually infected
Non-establishment 11. Parasite is not established unlike Without obvious changes in the
host introduced network; a decrease in
connectivity may occur due to the
greater number of host species in
the habitat
Events involving several introduced parasite species with generalist interactions may contribute to
increased network nestedness
The events and possible consequences of the scenarios described may occur
simultaneously and the effect on the structure and organization of the networks is
intensified according to the amount of species introduced in the environment. It is
necessary to understand the consequences of invasions in order to make manage-
ment decisions considering that even though at times the introduced host does not
present high abundance, its parasites may be increasingly dispersed in the local host
population. It is recommended to carry out further studies in this area in order to
better understand the effects that a introduced parasite species may promote in
different habitats.
9.6 Molecular Approach
The fast advance of molecular techniques has revolutionized the view of species
diversity and evolution (Morand et al. 2015). This development has important impli-
cations to understand host-parasite network structure, since species identification is
a key milestone when studying biological diversity, especially in the tropics, with so
many species yet to be described. Taxonomic studies using molecular tools have
revealed that many parasite taxa considered generalists actually encompass several
cryptic species (Agosta et al. 2010; Braga et al. 2014). Molecular techniques have
also allowed us to construct dated phylogenies with a satisfactory level of accuracy
(da Graça et al. 2016). This expands even more the limits of understanding how
host-parasite networks evolve and have been maintained throughout time. The
advance of molecular tools with the completion of host and parasite phylogenies
will certainly provide a better understanding on patterns and mechanisms underly-
ing the structures of host-parasite networks.
9.7 Final Considerations
Over the past few years, an increasing number of network studies have greatly con-
tributed to the understanding of host-parasite interactions in tropical aquatic ecosys-
tems. However, it is still an incipient amount given the high species diversity of
parasites and hosts, in addition to the little information available to establish com-
parisons between tropical and non-tropical networks, which may generate biased
generalizations. The patterns of host-parasite networks may vary over time and the
species development stages may contribute to this variation. Extinctions or new
host-parasite interactions can be expected with the environmental changes caused
by global changes and human activity in the tropical ecosystems, which might alter
the patterns known to the networks. Finally, further ecological network studies with
the use of molecular tools to taxonomic identification of parasites species should
assess these important issues to improve the understanding on the host-parasite
interactions in tropical ecosystems.
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Chapter 10
Interaction Networks in Tropical Reefs
Mauricio Cantor, Guilherme O. Longo, Luisa Fontoura,

Juan P. Quimbayo, Sergio R. Floeter, and Mariana G. Bender
Abstract Tropical reefs are, figuratively, the underwater counterparts of tropical

rainforests. Both complex, three-dimensional natural systems harbour an impres-
sive diversity of species. The diversity of ecological interactions taking place among
these species is no less striking: their intricate webs add another level of complexity
to these natural systems. In this chapter, we dive into the ecological networks of
tropical reefs to present an overview of some of the negative, positive, and neutral
interactions among inhabitants of rocky and coral reef ecosystems. We discuss tro-
phic interactions among species as food webs; territorialism and chasing behaviour
as competitive networks of reef fish; cleaning behaviour illustrating mutualistic net-
works, and following associations exemplifying commensalistic networks among
fish species. We close the chapter with a biogeographical perspective of interaction
networks in tropical reefs across the globe to discuss how human activities have
been threatening their plentiful life.
10.1 Introduction
Tropical reefs are one of the most productive and biologically diverse ecosystems
(Odum and Odum 1955). Paired with tropical rainforests, reefs are the archetypes of
natural ordered systems. These two three-dimensional systems host species with a
M. Cantor (*) • L. Fontoura • J.P. Quimbayo • S.R. Floeter

Departamento de Ecologia e Zoologia, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina,
Florianópolis, Brazil
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; sergio.
[email protected]
G.O. Longo
Departamento de Oceanografia e Limnologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte,
Natal, Brazil
M.G. Bender
Departamento de Ecologia e Evolução, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria,
Santa Maria, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_10
142 M. Cantor et al.
large variety of life histories in regulated populations within complex ecological

communities (Connell 1978).
Now imagine you could fly and see through these complex, diverse ecosystems.
While this may be difficult in a rainforest, it is not so much when you dive in a
colourful tropical reef. Reefs are oasis of life in the otherwise blue desert of open
oceans. Biogenic reefs are built by corals, sponges, and coralline algae, and rocky
reefs are geological formations that may result from rocks of different kinds and
sizes; moreover, reefs can even be artificial structures such as shipwrecks. These
habitats harbour an impressive collection of species: corals, gorgonians, crusta-
ceans, worms, echinoderms, seaweeds, not to mention the most notable creatures,
the abundant reef fish. None of these organisms are living isolated. A key compo-
nent of this underwater kaleidoscope of colour and forms often escapes the eyes—
ecological interactions. A more careful look into a tropical reef system reveals the
many intricate webs of ecological interactions submersed in its plentiful live.
As in all ecological communities, dwellers and visitants of tropical reefs interact
with one another (Odum and Odum 1955). These interactions are intra- and inter-
specific, and can be negative, positive, or neutral for the interacting individuals.
Interestingly, the effects of these ecological interactions can scale up from individu-
als to populations (i.e. affecting fitness), to communities (i.e. affecting structure),
and even to ecosystems (i.e. affecting functioning). Several types of ecological
interactions can be observed in a tropical reef, and fish are a conspicuous compo-
nent of many of them. To name a few, reef fish interact trophically among them-
selves and with benthic organisms (e.g. invertebrates and seaweeds); some fish are
territorial and aggressive towards other fish (and sometimes towards divers too);
while others may be helpful by removing parasites from other animals. Such diver-
sity of interaction types reflects the myriad of ecological processes taking place in
the fascinating reef environment (e.g. Moberg and Folke 1999).
Assessing these interactions to understand the processes they mediate, however,
is not an easy task. Apart from the obvious fact that they occur underwater—indif-
ferent to our curiosity—recording the dynamic interactions among reef species is
laborious, demanding many hours at sea and a combination of methods. Data on
reef species interactions usually come from dedicated scuba or free dive underwater
surveys (e.g. Grutter 2005), remote video recordings (e.g. Longo et al. 2014), and
indirect evidence such as stomach contents and literature review (e.g. Arias-
González et al. 2011). As data accumulate, one can employ the formalism of com-
plex networks to unravel patterns of species interactions occurring underwater from
the local (e.g. within 2 m2 sampling quadrats) to the global scales (e.g. across bio-
geographical provinces).
When ecology meets network theory, species depicted as nodes are connected by
links representing their biological interactions—be these negative, positive, or neu-
tral (Fig. 10.1). The nature of the biological interaction describes if the network is
directed or undirected (i.e., symmetric or asymmetric interactions between i and j),
binary or weighted (i.e., qualitative or quantitative interactions), one- or two-mode
(i.e., all species can interact, or there are two distinct sets of interacting species)
(Boccaletti et al. 2006). Food webs, for instance, are traditionally represented by
10 Interaction Networks in Tropical Reefs 143
Fig. 10.1 Tropical reef interaction networks. (a) Direct binary one-mode network of a simplified
food web. Nodes representing functional groups are linked to those they predate upon off the
Virgin Islands (Opitz 1996). (b) Binary two-mode network of reef fish and benthos. Nodes repre-
senting fish genera are linked to the benthic functional groups they consume in Abrolhos, Brazil
(Longo, unpub. data). (c) Indirect weighted one-mode network of agonistic behaviour among reef
fish. Nodes representing genera are linked by the frequency they engage in territorial disputes at
Ascension Island (Fontoura, Bonaldo, Floeter, unpub. data). (d) Weighted two-mode network of
mutualism between cleaner and client reef species. Nodes representing genera (sizes proportional
to abundance, individual/m2) are linked by number of cleaning events in Ascension Island (Morais
et al. 2017). (e) Directed weighted one-mode network of following associations among reef fish.
Nodes representing genera (sizes proportional to abundance) are linked by weighted directed links
proportional to intensity of interactions from follower to nuclear species off Ascension Island
(Morais et al. 2017)
directed one-mode networks (e.g. Yen et al. 2016). Species are connected by trophic
interactions, either weighted arrows indicating the relative rate of energy transfer
(e.g. grams of carbon/day) or interaction strength between taxa, or binary arrows
indicating which resources a given species feeds on (Fig. 10.1a). If the focus is on a
subset of trophic interactions—e.g. between reef fish and benthic community
(Longo et al. 2014)—one can use two-mode networks to depict the interactions
between two trophic levels (Fig. 10.1b). The same approach can be used to explore
cleaning interactions (e.g. Guimarães et al. 2007). Although essentially trophic,
cleaning interactions are by contrast mutualistic (e.g. Côté 2000) between two sets
of species—cleaners and clients—which communally benefit from the interaction
(Fig. 10.1d). Agonistic interactions among reef fish (Robertson 1996), on the other
hand, can be represented by undirected one-mode networks in which species are
linked whenever they engage in disputes for resources, such as territory (Fig. 10.1c).
Finally, commensalistic interactions such as following association among reef fish
(e.g. Sazima et al. 2007) can be depicted by directed one-mode networks indicating
which species follows and which is followed (Fig. 10.1e).
Networks give a panoramic snapshot of the liveliness of biological interactions.
These static depictions are very useful to describe structure (e.g. Bascompte et al.
2003), infer function (e.g. Yen et al. 2016), and predict changes (Memmott et al.
2004) in ecological communities. By summarizing a wealth of empirical data into a
network, we can immerse in its tangled structure in the search for emergent regulari-
ties. Some non-random network properties are common across biological systems.
For instance, food webs can display similarities in connectance (i.e. proportion of
realized links), degree distributions (i.e. number of trophic interactions across spe-
cies; Dunne et al. 2002), and modularity (i.e. subsets of highly connected species;
Stouffer and Bascompte 2011); whereas nestedness (i.e. hierarchical organization
of interacting species into inclusive subsets) is a common pattern of two-mode
mutualistic networks (e.g. Bascompte et al. 2003). Even though distinct processes
may give rise to these structures, their implications for the ecological and evolution-
ary dynamics of the systems may be similar. Nested networks, for instance, may be
robust against random species extinction regardless of the interaction type (Memmott
et al. 2004), potentially reducing competition among sets of species and increasing
the number of coexisting species (Bastolla et al. 2009). Therefore, the network
approach offers us a privileged viewpoint to the biological processes operating on
ecosystems, including tropical reefs.
Here, we explore interactions among tropical reef species to provide an underwa-
ter perspective to ecological networks and equalize the focus on terrestrial environ-
ments given so far in the previous chapters. Our goal is to offer an overview of some
of the negative, positive, and neutral interactions among inhabitants of reef ecosys-
tems. In the following sections, we briefly dive into marine food webs to examine
trophic interactions among reef species; into networks of agonistic interactions (e.g.
territorialism and chasing) to illustrate competitive behaviour between reef fish; and
into cleaning behaviour to illustrate mutualism and following associations among
fish to exemplify commensalism in rocky and coral reefs. We return from this dive
to close the chapter with a biogeographical perspective of interaction networks in
tropical reefs across the globe and ponder upon how human activities are threaten-
ing them.
10.2 Trophic Networks: Marine Food Webs
Predation is perhaps the most notable of the interactions among species—including

marine ones. This notion and the interest on trophic interactions date back from
Darwin’s first descriptions of communities (Darwin 1859). The term food web,
however, emerged in the early 1900s when Elton (1927) defined a set of “monopha-
gous” consumers as a food chain, and a food web as a group of chains that
incorporated “polyphagous” consumers (Fig. 10.1a). The first representations of

these trophic interactions consisted in descriptive diagrams with different trophic
levels, indicating a link connecting predator and prey with notes on the natural his-
tory of these organisms. These diagrams provided a general scheme of “who eats
whom” that were not necessarily taxonomically rigorous or comprised all the com-
ponents within a community (Paine 1980). However, only when the consequences
of the trophic interactions started to be revealed in the mid-1900s, Darwin’s inter-
ests on species coexistence started to benefit from our understanding of food webs.
The effects of trophic interactions in community dynamics were unravelled by
Paine’s (1966) seminal experiment removing the ochre starfish (Pisaster ochraceus)
from a rocky shore. This experiment demonstrated that predation by the ochre star-
fish could regulate the abundance, diversity, and distribution of benthic organisms in
that rocky shore, enabling more species to coexist. This study also gave rise to the
concept of keystone species (i.e. those whose interactions may have critical conse-
quences for community dynamics) and had a remarkable impact on how food webs
were studied and interpreted since then. It was no longer enough to describe who
eats whom. Other metrics such as interaction strength (i.e. a quantitative approach
of the link between predator and prey), connectance, and energy flow through tro-
phic links (Lindeman 1942) were necessary to move forward in the understanding
of food web dynamics.
Marine food webs are good examples of how dynamic interaction networks can
be. Here, interaction strength, connectance, and the structure and length of food
webs can be affected by multiple factors, for example, wave exposure, tides, cur-
rents, winds, upwelling regime, nutrient availability and, certainly, human interfer-
ence (McClanahan and Branch 2008). Despite being highly dynamic, some general
properties emerge from these webs. Most of the marine food webs characterized in
the literature present a relatively large richness of trophic interactions, a high level
of intermediate omnivore taxa, and an abundance of top predators comparable to
terrestrial ecosystems (Dunne et al. 2004). Chain length may also vary among
marine food webs depending on species richness, diversity, and complexity of the
system (Link 2002; Dunne et al. 2004).
The association of high species diversity in highly connected webs could result
in high structural robustness (Dunne et al. 2004). However, trophic interaction net-
works in reef ecosystems seem to be structured by “few strong and several weak”
interactions with keystone species and groups (e.g. Longo et al. 2014). Central spe-
cies can be identified in interaction networks by combining connectance and inter-
action strength. A simplified network of trophic interactions between fish and the
benthos (Fig. 10.1b) of the Abrolhos Archipelago, north-eastern Brazil, shows that
herbivorous fish are central species in this reef habitat. Interestingly, in tropical reef
food webs, herbivores often play a central role or are keystone species, determining
the structure and complexity of reef communities by controlling macroalgae abun-
dance and diversity (e.g. Rasher et al. 2013). The loss of these strong interactions
could have profound impacts in the structure of ecosystems, such as triggering
phase shifts from a coral to an algae-dominated community, regardless of high spe-
cies diversity and connectance.
The role of trophic interactions in structuring reef ecosystems goes beyond inter-
action strength. More than high abundance of herbivores, a proper assemblage of
these consumers is necessary to establish trophic links with a larger array of primary
producers (Rasher et al. 2013), generating redundancy (i.e. species that have com-
mon trophic links) and complementarity (i.e. species whose trophic links do not
overlap but that contribute to high connectance when combined). Another emergent
property in reef food webs is modularity, which may relate to redundancy and habi-
tat partitioning. In the North Pacific Ocean, for instance, sea otters connect an oce-
anic and a coastal module of a food web (Estes et al. 2016). The emergence of these
structures will also depend on reef characteristics—e.g. productivity, temperature,
and habitat complexity—not to mention other kinds of interspecific interactions
embedded in larger, multi-interaction ecological networks (e.g. Pocock et al. 2012;
Dáttilo et al. 2016). The ecological consequences of trophic interactions are, there-
fore, inherently linked to other ecological interactions.
10.3 A
gonistic Networks: Territoriality and Chasing
Among Reef Fish
Living in a tropical reef may be costly. Resources are not always abundant, thus
tropical reef species often engage in agonistic interactions related to resource parti-
tioning, parental care, and territoriality (Robertson 1996; Bonin et al. 2015). The
outcomes of the agonistic behaviour are generally non-lethal, and subtler than tro-
phic interactions. Similarly to predation, parasitism, and competition, agonistic
interactions can be asymmetrical: while one individual benefits from protecting a
resource, the others may not only be deprived of it but also suffer physical aggres-
sion. These interactions can also be detrimental for both species by reducing growth,
reproduction, and survival rates (Robertson 1996). Therefore, agonistic behaviour
imposes trade-offs to the participants. Partitioning and/or competing for limited
resources is a daily task for the inhabitant of a tropical reef—but not an obvious one
for the outsider observer.
Direct and indirect competition are often not easy to observe, despite their clear
influence on the structure of ecological networks (e.g. Dáttilo et al. 2014). This dif-
ficulty is particularly true in the heterogeneous, complex underwater reef ecosys-
tems. Alternatively, agonistic disputes for resources are much more conspicuous
and thus indicate resource-use overlap which essentially underpins direct or indirect
competition among species (Peiman and Robinson 2010). In tropical reefs, fish spe-
cies are constantly competing for shelter, food, and sexual mates (Bonin et al. 2015).
Consequently, several species defend territories and are aggressive (e.g. Forrester
2015). Chasing events among individuals are common indicators of such disputes
for resources; and serve as measurable, and reliable, proxies of interspecific compe-
tition (Robertson 1996).
The resultant network from these agonistic interactions can shed light into the
prevalence of intra and interspecific disputes, and how these interactions can mediate
resource partitioning and competition. Moreover, they give insights on the conse-
quences of agonistic behaviour and territoriality. For instance, engaging in these
behaviours demands considerable energy (potentially influencing individual fitness)
and can alter the density of fish populations in coral reefs, which in turn can influ-
ence community structure (see Robertson 1996; Bonin et al. 2015).
A network of agonistic chasing events depict species linked according to the
frequency they chase each other (Fig. 10.1c). If these agonistic interactions are
organized into a modular network, it could indicate either spatial segregation or
association of taxonomically related species, or even reveal patterns of trait associa-
tion (e.g. smaller species would not chase after potential predators). Modules could
also emerge from neutral processes driven by species abundance (see Vázquez et al.
2007). Interaction strength can also be affected by those drivers. For example, in the
agonistic network of fish in the reefs of Ascension Island, South Atlantic Ocean, the
interaction strength among pairs of species were not driven by species abundance.
Instead, species traits (e.g. the degree of diet overlap and/or aggressive territorial
behaviour) influenced the intensity of agonism (Morais et al. 2017). Although
agonistic behaviour is frequent in tropical reefs, there is another way to deal with
limited resources: cooperation.
10.4 M
utualistic and Commensalistic Networks: Cleaning
and Following Behaviour
Life in a tropical reef can be risky and competitive, especially if you are someone’s
resource or must compete for resources with someone else. Beyond escaping from
and chasing after a competitor, risk and competition sometimes can be tempered by
cooperative efforts. Interactions among reef species can also be positive. For
instance, one species may benefit from other species’ help on removing parasites or
dead tissues (cleaning mutualism) while a smaller fish may benefit from following
a larger one (following commensalism). In these interactions, the payoffs for the
involved parties can be bilateral or neutral—but are rarely absent.
Cleaning mutualism is one of the most intriguing interactions among reef species
both from an ecological (i.e. what are the consequences of cleaning?) and evolution-
ary (i.e. how these interactions were established or selected over time?) perspective
(Floeter et al. 2007). During these associations, a “cleaner” species removes para-
sites, necrotic tissue, and mucus from the body surface of “clients”, contributing to
its health (Grutter 2005). Cleaning behaviour has been reported in ca. 130 species
of fish and crustaceans (Côté 2000), which can be facultative (i.e. species cleaning
sporadically or only during juvenile stages) or obligate cleaners (i.e. species that
clean throughout their lives; Grutter 2005). These interactions often occur at specific
sites known as “cleaning stations”, characterized by prominent structures such as
massive corals, sponges, and large rocks (Côté 2000), forming two-mode networks
between cleaners and clients (Fig. 10.1d).
Following association is a neutral interaction observed among reef fish (Sazima

et al. 2007) characterized as a temporary feeding association. Here, opportunistic
species (“followers”) benefit from following bottom-foraging species (“nuclears”)
by consuming the exposed food resources made available from the disturbed sub-
strata (Sazima et al. 2007). The nuclear species does not receive any payoff, and also
does not pay any costs or is harmed by this association. While the nuclear role is
mostly played by fish (less often by octopuses, sea-stars, and turtles) several species
may be followers (Sazima et al. 2007). Following interactions can be com-
plex, involving large groups of individuals (up to several hundred) from different
species: the “shoaling” associations (Lukoschek and McCormick 2000). On the
other hand, when following involves only up to four individuals, they are called
“attendant associations”. Attendant associations can be divided into four groups
(Ormond 1980): when species aggregates to feed from exposed or leftover resources
gained from the nuclear species (following and scavenging); when it aggregates to
hunt cooperatively with other species with similar feeding habits; when it hunts by
swimming alongside or above a nuclear species using it as a cover to get access to
the prey (hunting by riding); and when the species has an easier access to the prey
by mimicking harmless species (aggressive mimicry). Following associations can
be described by one-mode networks indicating, for instance, the frequency of this
commensalism in a given environment (Fig. 10.1e; Morais et al. 2017).
Both of these positive interactions are essentially trophic—directly trophic in the
case of cleaning; indirectly in the following (through the exploration of a third food
source). Thus, these interaction networks can give insights on underlying biological
processes taking place in the community, such as niche partitioning. A nested clean-
ing interaction network, for instance, indicates that the distribution of mutualistic
interactions is asymmetrical, with some species engaging in many interactions and
others in fewer interactions that constitute subsets of the most connected species
(Guimarães et al. 2007). Therefore, the community contains species with different
resource-use strategies: a core of more generalist cleaner species (likely obligate
mutualists) along with more specialist cleaners (likely facultative cleaners).
If these positive interactions are specific among some species, the network would
be organized into modules. In this case, a given community would have cleaner
species that interact only with a group of clients; or follower species that only asso-
ciate with specific nuclear species. The modular structure suggests a high level of
specialization among species within these interactions. For instance, fish species of
the genus Elacatinus spp. are mainly obligate cleaners, and prefer clients associated
to the bottom, such as parrotfishes, eels, and groupers. Alternatively, the network
structure can be random, when only a few species interact, or when most species are
generalists. This case is more common in reefs where the nuclear role is played
by few species and the follower role is performed by several abundant species
(e.g. feeding frenzy; Quimbayo et al. 2014). Such conditions seem to occur in some
tropical reefs, particularly the more isolated ones such as oceanic islands. Therefore,
comparing networks depicting different ecological interactions in tropical reefs
around the globe can be profoundly revealing.
10.5 A
Biogeographic Panorama of Tropical Reef
Interaction Networks
The study of ecological networks at the community level provided several insights
on the processes operating at local scales and on how the structure and resilience are
related in ecosystems (Dunne et al. 2004; Bascompte et al. 2005). The relevance of
this approach is unequivocal. However, a biogeographic perspective could shed
light into the mechanisms operating at larger spatiotemporal scales and potentially
on how communities are assembled.
The diversity and composition of biological communities are shaped by different
processes across space and time. Large-scale processes (e.g. extinction, dispersal)
and environmental filters determine which species will successfully colonize a site
in a broader temporal scale (Mittelbach and Schemske 2015). Once established in a
local community, species engage in biotic interactions (e.g. predation, competition,
mutualism) that may affect the spatial distribution of species at local and regional
scales. This balance between evolutionary and ecological processes, and the relative
importance of biotic interactions on community structure across different spatial
scales can be assessed through studies of species interactions in a macroecological
context (Kissling and Schleuning 2015; Cantor et al. 2017).
Food webs, for instance, might conserve structural properties across a biogeo-
graphic scale (Fig. 10.2a). However, in a latitudinal comparison, food webs from
temperate reefs would differ from tropical reefs by exhibiting lower species diver-
sity, larger biomass, and for being more susceptible to changes in nutrient levels and
seasonal dynamics. These webs also differ in their major consumers (McClanahan
and Branch 2008). While fish are more central in tropical food webs, invertebrates
are more important in temperate reefs (e.g. Estes et al. 2011, 2016).
Environmental and ecological gradients are also crucial to the understanding of
large-scale patterns of interacting species (e.g. Trøjelsgaard et al. 2015). Temperature
and isolation are examples of abiotic factors that affect the spatial distribution of
species and, consequently, the diversity of species across spatial scales (Schemske
et al. 2009). Regional diversity patterns have a clear influence over the topology of
reef fish agonistic interactions networks, with a higher number of nodes and lower
values of connectance and centralization according to the fish diversity gradient
(Fig. 10.2b). Diversity may also promote stability and increase resilience (Dunne
et al. 2004). On the other hand, while high regional diversity implies higher diver-
sity of interacting species, we hypothesize that high modularity and lower con-
nectance in agonistic networks can suggest and indicate spatial heterogeneity of
species distribution or decreasing functional redundancy due to spatial segregation
of species.
At larger scales, ecological and mutualistic networks may display general struc-
tural patterns such as nestedness and asymmetry of interaction distributions
(Bascompte et al. 2003; Cantor et al. 2017). These resemblances among disparate
networked systems motivated studies testing whether neutrality could explain the
occurrence and strength of species interactions (e.g. Vázquez et al. 2009). In the
Fig. 10.2 Ecological networks from reefs across the globe. Positive (squares), negative (circles),
and trophic (triangles) indicate networks from 12 representative tropical reef communities. In food
webs (a), species (or functional groups when taxonomical level was unresolved) are connected by
trophic interactions (see Yen et al. 2016). In agonistic networks (b), fish species are connected by
territorial disputes (Fontoura, unpub. Data). In cleaning networks (c), cleaners (coloured) are con-
nected to the client species (Quimbayo, unpub. Data)
case of cleaning mutualism among reef fishes, species abundance is the major driver
of the frequency of species interactions, but it does not explain network structure
alone. Evolutionary signals can influence cleaning interactions (since specialized
cleaners from distinct biogeographic regions are taxonomically closer), and more
mobile species are more likely to interact (Floeter et al. 2007). Binary cleaning
networks from distinct reefs across the globe (Fig. 10.2c) vary in the number of
cleaner and client species. However, the constant presence of some cleaners with
a few links and others with many links suggests an evolutionary pressure over
specialization and a wide array of opportunistic species.
The current theoretical challenges are to assess whether the structure of local
ecological interactions scale up to larger spatial scales and whether these structures
contribute to shape species distributions and diversity patterns at macroecological
scales. A general overview of intrinsic properties of species associated with
abundance, phylogeny, and their functional role within networks can reveal
evolutionary conservatism of functional roles and whether neutral processes (e.g.
density-dependence) predict the structure of biotic interactions (e.g. Vázquez et al.
2007). Comparing the structure of ecological networks along geographic gradients
can indicate how natural selection and evolutionary processes might vary according
to environmental conditions. This is particularly important given the increasing
human interference in the environment, especially large-scale disturbances such as
climate change and habitat loss.
10.6 T
he Undesirable Link Between Humans and Reef
Environments
It is no longer a mystery that ecological interactions are key components of life on

Earth. Species are never isolated, but are inserted in multilevel interaction networks:
from individuals to ecosystems, from local to biogeographic scales. The complex,
combined effect of positive, negative, and neutral biotic interactions can shape the
structure of biological communities (Paine 1980) and the dynamics of the popula-
tions within them (e.g. Pires et al. 2011). A current motivation for understanding the
structure and dynamics of biological networks is to predict how this ecological
complexity will respond to the growing anthropogenic impact on nature, and how
one could alleviate its negative consequences (e.g. Pocock et al. 2012).
Tropical reefs suffer from a variety of anthropogenic impacts that operate at mul-
tiple spatial and temporal scales. These include overfishing, over harvesting of reef
organisms, pollution, increasing sediment and nutrient output in the reefs, uncon-
trolled tourism, introduction of allien species and diseases, and climate change (e.g.
Moberg and Folke 1999). These activities have dramatically changed interaction
networks in reefs worldwide. Clear examples come from destabilization of marine
food webs due to overexploitation of resources (e.g. Jackson et al. 2001; Estes et al.
2011, 2016). In theory, marine food webs should be relatively robust to overfishing
of random species; however, fisheries industries are selective and often target key
species, whose removal can subvert the food web structure. For instance, the loss of
top predators and primary consumers caused dramatic changes in the biotic and
abiotic conditions of ecosystems (i.e. phase shifts; Jackson et al. 2001; Estes et al.
2011, 2016). In tropical reefs, overfishing may cascade to decline herbivorous fish,
contributing for a shift from healthy and coral-rich ecosystems to impoverished and
algae-dominated systems (e.g. Bascompte et al. 2005).
Interaction networks can also be affected by the introduction of invasive species.
When the lionfish (Pterois volitans, a Pacific species introduced in the Caribbean by
the mid-1980s) was added to food web models of Caribbean reefs it figured above
the native top predators which are sharks, rays, and groupers (Arias-González et al.
2011). These novel trophic interactions could lead to higher mortality but could also
modulate competition. Climate change could have similar effects on food webs by
facilitating tropical species to expand their ranges and enter subtropical food webs
(tropicalization; Vergés et al. 2014). The negative impact of humans on marine

food webs (consequently, the functioning and structure of marine ecosystems) is
clear; there is no reason to doubt that networks of other biotic interactions are
disturbed too.
There are few clearer ways of capturing the urgency of understanding biotic
interactions than the famous quote by Janzen (1974) on tropical rainforests: “What
escapes the eyes (...) is a much more insidious kind of extinction: the extinction of
ecological interactions”. It goes without saying that the warning also fits perfectly
to tropical reefs. May we keep these underwater worlds complex, productive, and
diverse in shapes, colours, and functions. Only then the coming generations can
dive in their plentiful life to discover the importance of preserving their fragile inter-
action networks.
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Chapter 11
Ecological Networks in Changing Tropics
Eduardo Freitas Moreira, Patrícia Alves Ferreira, Luciano Elsinor Lopes,

Raimunda Gomes Silva Soares, and Danilo Boscolo
Abstract Earth has an extremely dynamic surface which changes naturally across
time. In the last century, however, vegetation cover underwent severe modifications
due to human demands for natural resources and food production. These changes
are deeply modifying the spatial distribution of native environments, which exist
today mostly in small patches embedded in human dominated landscapes. This is
even harsher in the tropics, where agricultural expansion is more intense.
Ecologically, this means that native species have to cope with a heterogeneous set
of new environments in which they did not evolve, bringing difficulties for the
movement of foraging individuals. This can impair the encounters needed to
establish biological interactions among individuals and different species. In this
chapter, we explore how landscape changes can lead to variations in ecological
networks structure and its consequences for biological and ecosystem services
conservation. Although there is a general lack of complete and extensive studies
regarding the effects of landscape changes on tropical ecological networks, there
is growing evidence that, given a certain native vegetation cover, landscape hetero-
geneity may favor bigger and more complex networks across scales or ecological
hierarchical levels. The relationship between landscape heterogeneity and the
E.F. Moreira
Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, Brazil
P.A. Ferreira
Departamento de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Federal de São Carlos,
São Carlos, Brazil
Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Biologia,
Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
L.E. Lopes • R.G.S. Soares
Departamento de Ciências Ambientais, Universidade Federal de São Carlos,
São Carlos, Brazil
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
D. Boscolo (*)
Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Departamento de Biologia,
Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_11
156 E.F. Moreira et al.
structure of ecological networks is however still an open field with many challenges
and opportunities and a huge potential for application for conservation and environ-
mental management.
11.1 Introduction
We live in an extremely dynamic world. The world surface changes naturally as a

condition of the planet. However, in the last 70 years the planet’s surface underwent
large sweeping changes in a short period of time. The growing demand for food
production, driven by the human population boom, agricultural techniques devel-
oped during the green revolution, as well as the cultural changes associated with the
production of wealth and economy globalization, have led to the conversion of large
areas of native vegetation into agricultural lands (Foley et al. 2005). This process is
accompanied by a global biodiversity crisis which results in accelerated species
extinction rates. In addition, there is no evidence of deceleration and the indicators
of pressure over biodiversity increased in the last decade (Ceballos et al. 2015). For
example, Hansen et al. (2013) showed intense transformations worldwide, with the
loss of 2.3 million square kilometers of forest cover in only 12 year and the gain of
only 0.8 million square kilometers of new forests at a global scale. This scenario
becomes even more dramatic if we consider that in the tropical regions, where most
terrestrial biodiversity is found, these transformations were even more intense. In
the tropics, native vegetation has been heavily replaced by agricultural production
areas dominated by extensive pastures or monocultures with intensive management
(Ribeiro et al. 2009).
Changes in landscape structure such as the loss of native vegetation and reduc-
tions of environmental heterogeneity are among the main drivers of biodiversity
loss (Stein et al. 2014) causing, for instance, along with exotic plants invasion,
severe negative effects on flower visitors’ functional diversity (Grass et al. 2013).
Such changes in community structure may also be associated with changes at a
more systemic level (Fort et al. 2016). Biodiversity is more than a collection of spe-
cies. Biotic interactions involve many partners, are complex, dynamic and play an
important role in the organization and persistence of biodiversity (Bascompte et al.
2003). These changes in community structure can have important consequences for
interspecific interactions and thus for ecological processes depending on them
(Valiente-Banuet et al. 2014). For example, Moreira et al. (2015) observed that pol-
linators’ diversity was positively related to landscape heterogeneity and that over-
simplifying the landscape had negative effects on the plant-pollinator networks
structure, reducing its complexity (Fig. 11.1).
Much has been discussed about the principles behind the organization of eco-
logical networks structure, where trait matching and the abundance distribution in
the communities, are the major contributors to network formation (Blüthgen
2010). However, these two factors do not contribute in the same proportion since
the majority of the variation in networks structure can be explained by the variation
11 Ecological Networks in Changing Tropics 157
Fig. 11.1 Adaptation from the scheme summarizing the results from Moreira et al. (2015), with 4
of 27 studied landscapes representing the positive relationship between the plant-pollinator net-
works complexity (A to D), the vegetation heterogeneity (left to right) and landscape heterogeneity
(top to bottom), including the number and proportion of the different land cover types (grey levels)
as well as the complexity of its arrangement
in the community structure, such as species richness and relative abundance

(Vázquez et al. 2009). The importance of those relationships is that network struc-
ture may be related with the ecological systems’ emerging properties such as
robustness and resilience, which are key factors to the maintenance of ecological
processes and biodiversity conservation (Tylianakis et al. 2010). This can be well
illustrated using pollination and predator-prey population dynamics, both good
examples of fundamental processes for biodiversity maintenance in terrestrial eco-
systems (Blüthgen 2010).
In this chapter, we will explore the most promising propositions for the relation-
ship between landscape structure, biodiversity, and interaction networks, highlight-
ing the latest evidences as well as the gaps and the implications of landscape
management applied to biological conservation in the tropics.
11.2 Landscape Ecology
Landscape, viewed as “a heterogeneous mosaic composed by interactive landscape

units, where heterogeneity exists for at least one parameter, one specific observer
and at a particular scale” (Metzger 2001), allows for a wide and useful approach to
understand environmental changes for many reasons. Most importantly, this
approach turns the landscape into a system composed by elements that interact with
each other. Those elements are classified into landscape units according to each
type of landscape component, i.e., types of land cover, vegetation classes, or envi-
ronments (Christian 1958). The criteria adopted in the definition of these units are
fundamental since they have great influence on the meaning of landscape’s charac-
terization. To be ecologically relevant, these criteria must be biologically based and
explicitly explained according to the observer in question (Forman 1995).
Landscape ecology is, thus, not an organizational level or a scale of analysis. It
is, instead, an approach to study how spatial heterogeneities are generated and can
affect human society and biological processes across all organizational levels. The
landscape heterogeneity can, then, be decomposed in two components: the configu-
rational and compositional heterogeneities (Fig. 11.2). Composition includes the
characteristics associated with the types of environments included in the landscape
and their respective quantities (Forman 1995). Configuration deals with the spatial
arrangement of landscape units.
Another consequence of that landscape definition is the impossibility of a func-
tional characterization of its structure without a previous definition of the observer
(Moreira et al. 2017). This observing agent can be interpreted in two ways, more
literally as referring to organisms that directly observe, interpret, and react to the
landscapes, or alternatively in a more metaphoric sense where the term observer
may be best understood as the biological process of interest that may respond to the
landscape heterogeneity. In the last sense, the observer can refer to a whole range of
phenomena such as the reaction of individuals of a species, a certain behavior of
these individuals, the populational dynamics, or the network of interspecific interac-
tions between species (Boscolo et al. 2016).
For example, consider a frugivorous bird that has a seasonal migration. In each
season, these birds are doing different things, such as mating, nesting, and migrat-
ing. The availability of the conditions and resources necessary for each of these
activities varies in space/time at different scales. It is the same to say that a given
individual experience the spatial variability in different ways during its lifetime
depending on the specific activities that it does. Therefore, approaches considering
multiple scales can be relevant, depending on the question being asked (Kotliar
and Wiens 1990). If the question is relative to a specific behavior at an individual
level, such as nest building, it is possible that only a single aspect of the landscape
heterogeneity is relevant. However, if interest is on the reproductive success, mul-
tiple factors become relevant which may include the interaction among several
individuals or species, such as the availability of nesting material, food resources,
mates, predation and parasitism rate, and so on (Chittka and Thomson 2004; Turner
Fig. 11.2 Adapted from Fahrig et al. (2011), represents the two axes of landscape heterogeneity:
compositional and configurational heterogeneity. The different color types represent different land
cover types, the landscape units, reflecting the heterogeneity of some environmental characteristic
relevant to the observer in question. The compositional heterogeneity increases with the number
and evenness of landscape units, what must reflect levels of variation in the relevant characteristics.
The configurational heterogeneity increases with the level of intricacy between landscape units and
is proportional to the increase in the contact surface between them
and Gardner 2015). The meaning of spatial heterogeneity then changes completely
from one question to another, while we may still be talking about the behavior of
one individual.
Landscape perception will also be related to other levels of organization such as
population dynamics, interspecific interactions, and ecological networks. The repro-
ductive success of the individuals are determinant factors for the populational
dynamics, which is determinant to the interspecific interactions that in turn pro-
duces the systems’ networks. This framework imposes a challenge. In nature, all
biological processes that respond to spatial variation are happening simultaneously
and, in general, are interdependent from each other. Therefore, multiple levels of
influence must be considered with regard to the relationship between landscape
heterogeneity and interaction networks, attempting to the relevant spatial heteroge-
neity at each level as well as the scale of measurement and the hierarchical nature of
the causal relationships involved (Turner and Gardner 2015).
11.3 Effects of Landscape Structure on Interaction Networks
In theory, any complex system can be represented and analyzed as interaction net-
works. In the last few decades, the developments of graph and system theories were
incorporated in ecology to help understand what are the consequences of the com-
munity structure on the ecological interactions and emergent properties of these
systems (Bascompte et al. 2003; Tylianakis et al. 2010). In this section, we will
explore how landscape structure changes can lead to changes in ecological net-
works. We will also discuss what those changes in ecological networks may repre-
sent for ecosystem processes and biodiversity conservation. However, our intention
here is not to exhaust all possible intersections between landscape ecology and net-
work theory. We will focus mainly on mutualistic networks (e.g. plant-pollinator
and plant-disperser interactions networks) given its relevance in the context pre-
sented before. In addition, interaction networks have many features, and there are
multiple ways to mathematically describe them. You can find a full description of
the network characteristics and their descriptors in Chaps. 3 and 13 of this book.
Nonetheless, not all features are equally relevant regarding network function and
stability, especially in relation to a landscape approach (Bascompte et al. 2003).
Therefore, we will discuss mainly networks’ characteristics whose relationship with
landscape and systems’ stability/productivity was previously proposed and tested
(Tylianakis et al. 2010).
The study of mutualistic interaction networks provides an interesting assessment
of landscape change impacts on biodiversity and the functioning of ecological pro-
cesses, providing guidance to the conservation of both (Viana et al. 2012; Ferreira
et al. 2013; Falcão et al. 2015; Moreira et al. 2015). However, there is still theoreti-
cal controversy and few empirical data regarding the effects of the loss of natural
environments on network characteristics such as nestedness (how much of the inter-
actions with specialists species are a subset of the interactions with generalists spe-
cies) and complementary specialization—H2′ (the extent to which specialist species
interact with other specialist species) (Soares et al. 2017). As suggested by Aizen
et al. (2012), in the tropics, interactions between specialized species can be more
sensitive to forest loss, whereas asymmetric interactions (specialist-generalist) or
between generalized partners could be more resistant to landscape changes. This
variation in response can promote shifts in interaction network characteristics,
potentially affecting their robustness, leading to secondary extinctions, loss of inter-
actions and, consequently, disruption of ecosystem functions (Soares et al. 2017).
To understand ecological systems as interactions networks and the effects of
changes in landscape structure, it should be clear that we are dealing with a spa-
tially/temporally oriented hierarchical complex system (Turner and Gardner 2015;
Ferreira et al. 2015; Moreira et al. 2015). Independently of the scales of observa-
tions, landscape structure is one of the most important factors that will influence all
levels. For example, at the lower levels landscape structure influences individuals’
behavior (Cranmer et al. 2012), at intermediate levels it influences population
dynamics (Pulliam et al. 1992), and at the higher levels it influences communities’
biodiversity (Slancarova et al. 2014).
The characterization of the network structure includes aspects of the interacting

partners and of the interactions themselves (Bascompte et al. 2003). First, to figure
out the relationship between the landscape and network structure we should estab-
lish the mechanisms behind that relationship. Networks are representations of sys-
tems, and the landscape can affect the components of these systems, and consequently
the system itself. The landscape spatial structure can directly affect the movement
of organisms. To be possible for organisms to find each other and interact, individu-
als must move through space. For instance, regarding plant pollination by animals,
because pollinators move through a landscape to reach flowering plants they have to
face different environments and conditions, which can change their routes, directly
interfering on pollen transfer probabilities. In this sense, landscape structural
changes can modify the effectiveness of pollination process of native vegetation and
agricultural fields merely by hindering pollinators’ access and movement among
flowers (Moreira et al. 2015).
Another aspect of the effects of landscape changes on interactions networks may
be found in the effects of landscape heterogeneity over the organisms’ foraging
behavior (Cranmer et al. 2012). Animals, for example, tend to optimize foraging
often preferring the nearest energy source because of its lower cost compared with
farther ones. However, when the energy gain is significantly higher, individuals may
assume higher costs, since the energy expended traveling a greater distance is well
compensated (Lihoreau et al. 2011). In the more heterogeneous landscapes, the
chances of having nearby alternative resources with high value to an organism is
higher, and it may increase the chances of that organism to travel shorter distances
from one landscape unit to another while increasing fitness and reducing survival
costs. In these cases, the organisms’ movement between landscape units with com-
plementary resources is encouraged by the low traveling cost since the distances
necessary to cross between units tend to be lower. Therefore, the interactions
between species that depend upon organisms’ movements across landscape units
have higher probability to occur in more heterogeneous landscapes than in homoge-
neous ones, where resources may be spatially disaggregated (Cranmer et al. 2012).
This can affect network size and number of interactions observed in a given site of
the landscape as well as have effects on other important network characteristics
since species will not meet their network counterparts (Vázquez et al. 2009).
Another example are the adaptations of many species to the variation in competi-
tive pressure. Those mechanisms are activated depending on the context in which
the species are embedded. They can be triggered by competitors’ density or resource
scarcity and include behavioral changes, such as the broadening or contraction of the
diet breadth. Some animals tend to include more food items when under the influ-
ence of increased competitive pressure, expanding their diet. In more heterogeneous
landscapes where the flux of organisms may be facilitated, more competitive pres-
sure is expected in places with high value resources as more individuals of distinct
species are drone to it from further places (Moreira et al 2015). This can promote
the diet expansion of the more plastic organisms that reside nearby (Fontaine et al.
2008). Such changes can affect network structure since the more plastic species will
exhibit more interactions, increasing connectance, network nestedness, and changing
the interaction strength distribution, as well as the overall network specialization

(Vázquez et al. 2009).
Invasive exotic species, for instance, are expected to present such behavioral
plasticity, and are likely to compete with and/or facilitate the maintenance of native
species and their interactions (Bartomeus et al. 2008). Taking pollination as an
example, the most reported effect is the usurpation of interactions by the exotic spe-
cies, which centralizes the interactions increasing the asymmetry of the network and
decreasing the interactions strength between the native species. This is accompa-
nied by the increase in abundance of species that benefits from the invasion (Soares
et al. 2017). On the other hand, there are reports of no effects of invasive species on
network metrics such as nestedness and connectance, what may indicate some net-
work robustness, with a reorganization of the interactions, buffering the losses and
behavioral changes caused by the introduction of super generalists exotic species
(Padrón et al. 2009; Vilà et al. 2009; Falcão et al. 2017).
Theoretical models suggest that the structures of mutualistic networks are in
general resilient to random extinctions, but the extinction of well-connected gener-
alists can result in quick network collapse due to interactions and species loss
(Kaiser-Bunbury et al. 2010). In tropical environments, where harsh landscape
structural changes occur, the loss of key generalists is probable (Aizen et al. 2012).
However, empirical data on the response of ecological network metrics to landscape
changes is scarce (Soares et al. 2017). The available data indicates that after an
environmental disturbance the network tends to reorganize towards a more stable
form, allowing for the coexistence of species and maintenance of interactions
(Nielsen and Totland 2014). However, in a recent review Soares et al. (2017) showed
that environmental degradation influenced network metrics but degree, nestedness,
and connectance (based on unweighted links) did not have a simple, linear, or uni-
directional pattern of response to changes in environmental quality. Despite limited
data, asymmetry and reciprocal specialization index (d′ and H2′ respectively)
showed the most consistent responses to environmental quality change.
In the tropics, landscape homogenization due to native vegetation loss can lead
to the reduction in nestedness and specialization mostly because of specialist spe-
cies loss (Moreira et al. 2015, Ferreira unpublished dataset). Another important
highlight is that the role of the species changes, ranging between generalists and
specialists under different conditions (Soares et al. 2017). There is a higher level of
specialization in better preserved landscapes, and the composition of the network
can vary even when its basic structure does not change (Nielsen and Totland 2014).
This shows how interactions networks have a particular importance for ecological
conservation. More resilient species may survive in a degraded landscape; however,
its role in the networks may change in ways that compromise the ecological process
underlined by those interactions (Aizen et al. 2012). For example, as a specialist
pollinator changes its role in the network, becoming more generalist, may put pres-
sure on other species, causing species loss and disruptions of ecological processes
(Nielsen and Totland 2014).
In the end, landscape heterogeneity may favor bigger, more connected, and more
nested networks across scales or hierarchy levels (Moreira et al. 2015). This hap-
pens because the number, strength, and distribution of interactions are closely
related with the community structure (Vázquez et al. 2009). The landscape hetero-
geneity can also affect the density of individuals through two basic mechanisms.
First, it can increase recruitment of species that can benefit from the supplementary
or complementary resources available in different landscape units. For example,
multivoltine species may have more reproductive cycles during the year in more
heterogeneous landscapes when the different landscape units offer complementary
or supplementary resources in different seasons, also reducing intraspecific compe-
tition (Burkle and Knight 2012). The second mechanism is associated with the pres-
ence of attractor sites in the landscapes, increasing beta diversity, for example
(Veech and Crist 2007). More homogeneous landscapes may thus promote the con-
centration of individuals in few edges between the landscape units (Ferreira et al.
2015), whereas more heterogeneous landscapes tend to have populations more
evenly distributed promoting the dilution of individuals (Moreira et al. 2015). The
balance of these two mechanisms may determine the concentration of individuals in
a given point in the landscape and in turn the probability of their interactions
(Vázquez et al. 2009). On a broader level, landscape heterogeneity can promote
higher beta and gamma diversity, which can function as source of diversity to the
proximal level. The reduction of landscape heterogeneity generally involves the
substitution of natural vegetation by agriculture or other land cover. In this context,
species with more behavioral plasticity may be less affected or even favored, exhib-
iting increased abundance in landscapes with low levels of native vegetation cover,
while species with less behavioral plasticity may be locally extinct (Ferreira et al.
2015). This process follows the regime-shift model that predicts a reduction in
abundance and richness of specialized species and an increase of generalized ones
at different landscape scales (Pardini et al. 2010). These changes tend to decrease
the conservation state of networks in degraded landscapes (Soares et al. 2017).
At a proximal scale, more heterogeneous landscapes can promote the mainte-
nance of higher species richness than the more homogeneous ones (Fahrig et al.
2011; Moreira et al. 2015). This happens because beyond the species that are associ-
ated with each environment and the common ones, heterogeneous landscapes also
may sustain species that can survive only in regions where multiple environments
are present (Fig. 11.3). Such situations are expected in cases where the species
reproduce in one environment and forage in others or where vital resources are sea-
sonally available in each landscape unit along the year. Regarding the configura-
tional heterogeneity, landscapes with more heterogeneous configurations will also
favor the maintenance of the species that depend or benefit from the presence of
multiple environments, since it can lower the costs of movement between landscape
units, as explained above. Richer communities will then tend to have networks that
are larger more nested and with more specialist interactions (Bascompte et al. 2003;
Moreira et al. 2015).
Fig. 11.3 Adapted from Fahrig et al. (2011), represents the effect of complementation between
landscape units on biodiversity and network structure. Species diversity increases with the number
of landscape units because they maintain the species associated with each landscape unit plus the
species that require the multiple landscape units to survive. This process also affects the probability
of interactions and the network complexity as observed by Moreira et al. (2015)
11.4 I nteractions Networks Conservation, Management,

and Future Perspectives
Populations’ densities and interactions are highly variable in space and time
(Petanidou et al. 2008). This natural intrinsic variation has to be considered in envi-
ronmental management based on single species or single interaction. However, the
structure of communities and interaction networks tend to be more stable over time
than its constituents (Blüthgen et al. 2016). For that reason, the network structure
could be the focus of management goals. However, not every stable state of a system
represents a desirable state from the point of view of ecological process manage-
ment. For example, reducing the diversity of plant species in a given environment
may lead to a more stable state, which may not necessarily mean improvements in
the ecological processes of that environment (Morales and Aizen 2002).
Environmental degradation may lead the system to stable or resilient states, mainly
by reducing the diversity of species and by changes in species’ functions in these
networks (Soares et al. 2017). Such stable states are undesirable from any biodiver-
sity conservation perspective and may constitute a challenge to ecological restora-
tion and management. Therefore, initiatives for conservation and management of
ecological processes should aim not only on stability but also the complexity of
ecological systems.
As interaction network structure reflects the general pattern and not the intrinsic
spatial/temporal variation of the system, it is important to discuss which should be
the conservation target to networks in landscape management initiatives and how

land use management can help us approaching the desirable state. Some of the
mechanisms and tendencies involved in these relationships were discussed above.
However, those need to be viewed with caution and carefully criticized. For instance,
mutualistic networks tend to be nested. Additionally, network nestedness is expected
to increase the resilience of plant-pollinator interactions (Bascompte et al. 2003).
Should mutualistic network nestedness maintenance be a conservation goal? Should
management targets be likely “to increase nestedness”? This questions have been
raised and not answered yet, either theoretically or empirically (see Soares et al.
2017; Tylianakis et al. 2010).
Empirical evidence has shown that a higher nestedness in degraded landscapes
can also indicate an increase in the resilience of a poorer undesirable state of the
network (Soares et al. 2017). Even very simplified and degraded networks can
maintain its nestedness and partially its functionality, without conserving the inter-
actions richness and network complexity. Therefore, we should not set increases in
nestedness as a management target. On the other hand, a management target such as
the conservation of all interactions is difficult to pursue by several reasons, includ-
ing the spatiotemporal dynamics of ecological systems.
Only the combined analysis of a set of metrics, including the network level and
the underlying mechanisms observed at lower hierarchical levels will be able to
indicate the conservation status of an interaction network and its relation to the
landscape structure. Despite still incipient, there are some candidate metrics for that
integrated analysis such as network size, interaction asymmetry, interaction special-
ization or selectivity (H2′), plus additional information about changes in species
compositions and their roles in the interactions (Soares et al. 2017). Additionally,
the comparative study of networks in different environments, associated with func-
tional diversity and the measurement of ecological processes in order to investigate
if there are network characteristics capable of reflecting the specificities of each
ecosystem. Information of this nature may provide clues to the relevance of specific
network structural patterns for the ecosystem functions in different environments
and how they can be managed.
The network analysis also has great potential of application in monitoring of
ecological restorations since it allows to evaluate the restoration process covering
not only the development of the vegetal species but its interactions and increase of
the complexity of the community. In this sense, the networks also contribute to the
selection of the characteristics of the species that would be most important in the
process of community formation, thus enhancing the restoration action. Finally,
network analysis can serve as a parameter to evaluate the success of the restoration
(Forup et al. 2008).
In fact, we still know too little about the consequences of landscape changes on
the network structure to link diversity, stability, and function because of the lack of
empirical studies. In addition, the magnitude of spatial-temporal variations in tropical
landscapes is greater than in other regions because of the high diversity and species
turnover (Nielsen and Totland 2014). Therefore, such studies are needed to sepa-
rate the effects of natural variations from those resulting from anthropic impacts.
In general, the number of empirical studies on networks is scarce and in the tropics
it is even smaller (Ferreira et al. 2013). Most of these studies do not relate the net-
work structure to environmental gradients or provide empirical evidence of its
impact on the ecological functions to which they are associated. Therefore, most of
the conclusions about the impacts of networks’ structure and dynamics over ecosys-
tems functions are based on conceptual and mathematical models, and/or indirect
relationships. Empirical studies could enable us to identify which network interac-
tions are most affected by anthropic impacts, as well as to analyze the ecological
significance of the behavior of these interactions at the community level. However,
it is important to bear in mind that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
You can find a current perspective about the empirical gaps in this matter in the
review by Soares et al. (2017).
Another interesting topic is the relationship between the dynamic aspects of
both landscapes and ecological networks. There are some propositions about the
consequences of the landscape dynamics for biological communities, biodiversity
stability, and conservation such as the spatial insurance hypothesis, considering the
interactions’ turnover (Loreau et al. 2003). However, such relationships were not
empirically evaluated yet. The same is true to the dynamics of interaction networks
and its relation to function and stability that were usually studied through mathe-
matical models (Vázquez et al. 2009). There is an interesting path emerging from
the network field that can help coping with these problems, the multilayer approach
to model ecological networks (Pilosof et al. 2017). This approach allows us to
consider both temporal and spatial dynamics of interaction networks and can be
associated with landscape hierarchical models. In sum, we can safely assert that
the relationship between landscape heterogeneity and the structure of ecological
networks is an open field with many challenges and opportunities and an enormous
potential of application for conservation and environmental management in the
tropics.
Acknowledgements We thank Rafaela Lorena da Silva Santos for all the support in challenging
times and the help with the references and spelling check.
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Chapter 12
The Future of Ecological Networks
in the Tropics
Luciano Cagnolo
Abstract Ecological networks are one of the best approaches to describe interac-
tive communities of species. Accordingly, the development of network studies in the
tropics is imperative given the high rates of habitat loss and transformation. To
achieve this goal, we face the challenge of dealing with extreme complexity but
lacking complete taxonomic and natural history information. In this chapter, I ana-
lyze the trajectory of network studies in the tropics over time and describe some
promising avenues for the study of ecological networks in the next years. I built
keyword co-occurrence networks of network studies in the tropics for four periods
from 1970 to the present. The earliest network studies were concentrated on food
webs; in the following decades, network studies rose dramatically and diversified,
generating topic modules about different interaction types. The last period (2010–
2016) reflects a mix of different research areas, with food web studies being less
important and much more connected with other topics such as frugivory and myr-
mecophily. One of the major challenges of network research in the tropics is to
increase the level of network complexity. Here, I propose two ways: merging differ-
ent interaction types into single networks and disaggregating data into their spatial,
temporal, and individual-level layers. The multilayer approach requires new con-
ceptual and methodological frameworks that are starting to be formalized. One of
these tools is barcode sequencing directly from DNA extracted from consumers,
which provide strong physical evidence for the host association and facilitates phy-
logenetic analysis.
12.1 Introduction
The megadiversity of the humid tropics has always amazed naturalists, as could be
noticed in the annotations and drawings of the nineteenth century (Bates 1864). The
fascinating abundance and diversity of forms and colors of tropical species may
L. Cagnolo (*)
Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal (CONICET), Universidad Nacional de
Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_12
172 L. Cagnolo
have served as inspiration for the cornerstone work of Darwin and Wallace in 1858.
Since those days to the present, important advances have been made in cataloging
tropical biodiversity; however, most biologists agree that we still lack a nearly
complete description of tropical diversity, particularly regarding small, non-con-
spicuous insects, fungi, and bacteria (Erwin 1991). Although this is problematic—
but affordable—it is undoubtedly an urgent task considering the unprecedented
rates of habitat loss and modification, with the consequent loss of associated species
(Pimm and Raven 2000).
The study of ecological networks increased in the last decade since researchers
have appreciated them as the most informative way to summarize and describe bio-
logical communities. From the earliest food web studies to the complex network
approach in our days, ecological network science has evolved both in theory and
tools as a consequence of merging ideas coming from physics, sociology, mathe-
matics, and biology (Poisot et al. 2016). Network studies applied to biological com-
munities succeed in understanding the robustness and fragility of ecosystems (Solé
and Montoya 2006) and identifying key species and interaction paths (Aizen et al.
2012), which are the foundation of conservation management. In the tropics, the
development of network studies is an urgent task given the high rates of habitat loss
and transformation (Barlow et al. 2016). Nevertheless, developing network studies
in the tropics requires facing the challenge of dealing with extreme complexity but
still lacking complete taxonomic and natural history information.
In this chapter, I analyze the trajectory of tropical network studies over time,
focusing on the comparison of the type of interactions studied and the concepts and
tools applied. Finally, I describe some promising avenues for the study of ecological
networks in the next years, both in their theoretical and methodological aspects.
12.2 The Evolution of Network Studies in the Tropics
The study of ecology through networks has a long history that can be traced back to
the 1800s, as cited by Dunne (2006). In this section, I provide a revision of papers
presenting network studies in the tropics by searching in Scopus and Google Scholar
using the keywords “network + tropics OR tropical” and “food web + tropics OR
tropical.” With this information, I built keyword networks for each of four periods
(1970–1989, 1990–1999, 2000–2009, and 2010–2016), by establishing a link between
words when they co-occurred in the title, abstract, or materials and methods section.
The idea behind this analysis was to evaluate how concepts group together and to
determine which ones are central nodes that connect different areas of study.
The keywords search focused on concepts associated with hypotheses (e.g.,
“equilibrium,” “bottom-up control”), countries where the studies were conducted,
habitat type (e.g., “forest,” “freshwater”), statistics used to describe the networks
(e.g., “connectance,” “nestedness”), interaction type (e.g., “competition,” “pollina-
tion”), sign of interactions (e.g., “mutualism,” “antagonism”), and organisms
involved (e.g., “fishes,” “insects”). With this information, I constructed weighted
one-mode networks, in which each tie in the edge list was valued by a positive num-
12 The Future of Ecological Networks in the Tropics 173
Fig. 12.1 Number of network studies of different interaction types in tropical ecosystems for four
periods of time
ber that indicates its frequency of co-occurrence. These networks were examined to
evaluate how words are grouped into highly connected groups (here referred to as
“modules”) and therefore identify the concepts, tools, or organisms that serve as
connectors between different areas of research (modules). By doing this, I expect to
identify which concepts helped to integrate and generalize the science of ecology.
The number and diversity of interaction types in network studies conducted in
the tropics has risen dramatically since the 1970s (Fig. 12.1). Accordingly, the con-
cepts and tools applied in their study increased and diversified as well (Fig. 12.2).
The 1970–1989 period presented only four studies in 20 years, with all of them
being descriptions of antagonistic interactions, such as predation and competition,
and three out of four being from aquatic habitats. The keyword network was sharply
divided into two blocks, connected by the word “antagonism” (Fig. 12.2).
During the1990s, the number of studies more than doubled those of the previous
two decades. As in the previous period, antagonisms still prevailed but ecologists
started to focus on interactions other than predation, such as herbivory and parasit-
oidism (Fig. 12.1). In the 1990s, ecological studies were influenced by research
exploring regularities in food webs, which had been performed in previous years
(Briand and Cohen 1984; Pimm and Kitching 1987). Although food web studies in
aquatic systems were still important in the 1990s, there seemed to be more interest
in what happens with insects and plants in tropical forests. Researchers incorporated
new tools, such as the use of stable isotopes, to establish feeding links, statistics
such as modularity to describe global aspects of network structure, and concepts of
174 L. Cagnolo
Fig. 12.2 Keyword networks of network studies in tropical ecosystems for four periods of time.
Font size of keywords reflects their frequency of appearance, and colors reflect the approximate
position of cohesive groups of keywords (modules)
scale-dependency of network properties; studies were also conducted in new

(for network scientists) countries such as Costa Rica and New Guinea. The keyword
network of this period was composed of four modules, with the largest ones being
that of food web studies in aquatic systems. Consequently, the most frequent
keywords were those related to food web studies, such as “predation,” “fishes,” and
“antagonism” (Fig. 12.2).
In the following decade (2000–2009), the total number of studies rose, with the
peculiarity of an increase in the relative importance of non-food web studies, which
were less than half of the total (Fig. 12.1). Keystone papers evaluating regularities
in the patterns of mutualistic interactions (Jordano 1987) and the first analyses of
pollination networks with food web tools and concepts (Memmott 1999) generated
new enthusiasm. However, the keyword network still reflected the dominance of
food web studies, showing a greater richness of concepts than in the previous period
and the emergence of interest in new interaction types. Hence, the food web words
formed a large module on the left side of the network graph, whereas the remaining
keywords were placed in three modules, each one representing different lines of
research associated with different interactions. The most frequent keywords were
those related to food webs, such as “trophic position,” “fresh water,” and “stable
isotopes” (Fig. 12.2).
The last period analyzed comprises only seven years but is sufficient to demon-
strate a dramatic increase in number and diversity of network studies in the tropics.
The decrease in the interest in food webs is remarkably opposite to the increase of
the remaining interaction types, particularly in myrmecophily (Fig. 12.1). The key-
word network reflects these changes through a combination of different areas of
research; although the food web module can still be recognized, it is relatively
small and much more connected with other modules. Interestingly, there is a
change in the research topics related to the most frequent keywords, with “special-
ization,” “plants,” and “pollination” being some of the most prominent ones
(Fig. 12.2).
The evolution of the study of ecological networks in the tropics is not different
from that in other latitudes (e.g., Dunne 2006), and the present of network studies in
the tropics shows an amazing diversity of topics and, particularly, of interaction
types. This diversity of studies requires the generalization—if possible—of the con-
ceptual frame and methodological approaches to reach a unified theory of ecologi-
cal networks. In the following sections, I outline what are considered the most
promising avenues to achieve this goal.
12.3 T
he Future of Network Studies: Dealing
with Complexity
Future studies in ecological networks have the main challenge of adding complexity.
To achieve this goal, we must look at the several forms of oversimplification in the
present status of network studies. For example, since biological communities are
composed of individuals, populations, and species interacting in different ways,
places, and times, incorporating complexity and realism requires studies to be multi-
layered. Multilayer networks are composed of different types of nodes and edges
combined into a single representation (Pilosof et al. 2015). Accordingly, a multilayer
network should have intralayer edges (i.e., those linking intralayer nodes) and inter-
layer edges (i.e., those linking nodes from different layers) (Fig. 12.3). Examples of
multilayer networks in ecology are those that combine different interaction types
(e.g., Pocock et al. 2012), habitats (e.g., Borthagaray et al. 2014), or points in times
(e.g., Schoenly and Cohen 1991). The integration of the multilayer network theory
176 L. Cagnolo
Fig. 12.3 Example of the

composition of a
multilayer network. Layers
can be different points of
time, sites, or interaction
types; each layer has
intralayer interactions
(colored lines) and
interlayer interactions
(dotted lines) composed of
shared nodes connecting
different layers
into ecology requires coming out of the comfort zone of, for example, our organismal-
taxonomic affinities, and provides an opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration.
Unfortunately, ecology science still lacks a proper conceptual frame and its appropri-
ate tools (but see Pilosof et al. 2017 for a description of multilayer networks and tools
for ecological studies). Below, I present a list of ideas and suggestions to incorporate
complexity in research studies of ecological networks.
12.4 Combining Different Interaction Types
The study of ecological networks emerged as a consequence of understanding

that species do not occur alone in ecosystems, and their fitness is a conse-
quence of the interactions established with other species, among other factors.
Most research has focused on the study of networks of particular interactions
(e.g., herbivory, pollination) and involving particular guilds (e.g., leaf miner herbi-
vores, hummingbird pollinators). Although network science was (and is) successful
in describing complex ecological systems, we still lack a comprehensive under-

standing of the biotic environment of species to draw more realistic conclusions.
Food web studies usually contain different types of interactions in a single
web (e.g., herbivores, detritivores, and predators), but in the last few years,
attempts have been made to explicitly merge different interaction types into
network studies (Lewinsohn and Cagnolo 2012). For example, in a large net-
work containing both mutualistic and antagonistic links from Spain, the ratio
between mutualistic and antagonistic links per plant species was very hetero-
geneously distributed in the plant community, which resulted in a strong influ-
ence on total species richness (Melián et al. 2009). Pocock et al. (2012)
assembled a “network of networks” from several studies conducted in an
organic farm in southwest England. They found that networks did not covary in
their robustness, suggesting that management actions that benefit one guild or
functional group will not necessarily benefit others. Recently, a plant-centered
mutualistic network including pollination, protection, and seed dispersal inter-
actions did not show to be more robust than the sum of their parts, but more
interestingly, some species that connected different sub-networks showed to
have a disproportionate effect on community cohesion (Dáttilo et al. 2016).
These examples show diverse evaluations of how different layers are connected
and influence each other in ecological communities. Unfortunately, ecology
has a deficiency of structured protocols to evaluate the properties of these tran-
sition zones between networks that share species and are composed of different
interaction types (Kéfi et al. 2016).
Merging different interaction types into a single network is a methodological
challenge because it requires consistent sampling protocols and standardized statis-
tics to make the effects of different interaction types comparable. Accordingly, Palla
et al. (2005) proposed several statistics to describe multilayer networks where each
node (species, individuals, etc.) i is a member of mi networks (e.g., layers in
Fig. 12.3). The overlap size saov,b between networks a and b (e.g., layers 1 and 2 in
Fig. 12.3) is the number of shared nodes, which represents a link between both net-
works (dotted lines in Fig. 12.3). The linkage level of a network a is dacom , called
community degree. Finally, they propose sacom as the number of nodes in a network
a. The distributions of these four parameters mi, saov,b , dacom , and sacom are then used
to describe multilayered networks (Palla et al. 2005). This approach is interesting
because it focuses on the transition zones of interactive communities composed of
species of different interaction types, and it allows us to evaluate the spread of
disturbances across a large ecosystem (Olesen et al. 2010).
12.5 Adding Trophic Levels
There are few examples of merging different interaction types into a single network,
but including several trophic levels into a single network is one of the straightforward
ways. The earliest food web studies usually included species feeding in different
178 L. Cagnolo
modes, mixing producers with secondary and tertiary consumers, and even scavengers
(e.g., Polis 1991). Consequently, the concept of trophic levels became useful to
understand the mechanisms of energy transfer from producers to the whole com-
munity (Cohen et al. 2009). However, the development of tools and concepts for the
study of bipartite networks in the last 15 years has focused on the interaction
between two contiguous trophic levels, usually plants and their associated animals.
Although the advances in this topic are amazing, as is reflected by the fast growth
of number and diversity of studies (Fig. 12.1), in the next decade the challenge will
be to identify the interface of different trophic levels and understand how non-
contiguous trophic levels influence each other.
The description of three-level networks is widespread in the ecological literature,
particularly regarding plant-herbivore-parasitoid networks (e.g., Memmott et al.
1994; Lewis et al. 2002). These “tri-trophic” networks allow us to examine the
reciprocal influence of extreme trophic levels mediated by the mid-level, but neither
the classical food web approach nor the bipartite network analysis offers a proper
conceptual and methodological framework to fully understand a tri-trophic struc-
ture. The bipartite approach ignores bottom-up and top-down effects of non-
participant trophic levels. This is not irrelevant since, for example, herbivores in
tropical forests have to deal with plant defenses and higher rates of predation and
parasitism (Schemske et al. 2009), and it is likely that herbivore specialization has
evolved and is maintained in response to one or both of these forces (Lewinsohn
et al. 2005). Consequently, herbivores select host plants by searching for enemy-
free space (Heard et al. 2006), and parasitoids are attracted differentially by plant
volatiles (Boone et al. 2008), suggesting that non-participant trophic levels affect
species interactions in other trophic levels.
Fontaine et al. (2011) proposed six different schemes resulting from merging two
bipartite networks based on the combination of nested, modular, and random topol-
ogies. A particular topology, in which modules of the basal network (e.g., plant-
herbivore) translate into modules in the upper network or vice versa, is interesting
because it could be a clue of mutual influence. Accordingly, overlapped modules in
consecutive bipartite networks may represent a co-evolutionary vortex of tri-trophic
interactions; in addition, species and interactions that connect different tripartite
modules may be keystones for community maintenance and species diversification
(Leppänen et al. 2013). Moreover, it was argued that cascades, i.e., the influence of
biotic interactions on species in contiguous upper or lower trophic levels (Polis et al.
2000) tend to be ameliorated in tropical systems as a consequence of reticulate net-
works and high species diversity (Dyer and Letourneau 1999); therefore, the extent
of such cascades may also depend on the structure of the tripartite networks and the
degree of overlap between successive modules.
The structural patterns of tripartite networks are unknown because there are
scarce tools and concepts for their study. Murata (2010) proposed a method for
detecting communities from tripartite networks composed of Internet users, URLs,
and tags. Murata’s approach offers a solution to evaluate tripartite network modular-
ity; this method employs spectral partitioning and can detect communities from
networks that are composed of thousands of nodes and tens of thousands of hyper-
edges. This is an example of the usefulness of paying attention to areas other than
ecology and incorporate tools and concepts from other fields of study that could be
applied to solve ecological questions.
12.6 D
isaggregating Data: Adding Space, Time,
and Individuals Information
Most network studies are the result of pooled interactions recorded at different
places (sites, transects, points, etc.) and moments (Fig. 12.3). How much of the
known network patterns is a consequence of the spatiotemporal accumulation of
interactions? For example, most networks constructed with aggregated data overes-
timate the connectivity of species (Trøjelsgaard and Olesen 2016), affecting our
predictions, for example, about the extent of secondary extinctions.
Aggregated data may mask the spatiotemporal roles of species. For example,
Pimm and Lawton (1980) proposed that modularity in food webs may emerge as a
consequence of habitat boundaries, as found in the Serengeti food web (Baskerville
et al. 2011) and in a bumble bee-flower network (Dupont et al. 2014). Unfortunately,
most studies actively select homogeneous plots for sampling and pooling data
from different plots or sites; thus, the opportunity to evaluate the possibility that
habitat generalists connect different modules composed of habitat specialists is
missed.
Taking space and time into account is a fundamental task since before proposing
any other explanation we should discard spatiotemporal overlap of interaction part-
ners (Vázquez et al. 2009). Studies comparing networks across time and space
found that macroscopic statistics (i.e., those that describe the global structure of a
network, such as connectance and modularity) tend to be more stable than the
microscopic structure (i.e., the identity and position of particular species and inter-
actions) (Trøjelsgaard and Olesen 2016). Recording changes in the phenological
intensity of biotic interactions through space would add another layer to the micro-
scopic features of interaction networks and could contribute with a deeper under-
standing of fine-scale changes. Therefore, the inclusion of space and time to our
network studies will allow us to identify species with important roles, which may be
keystones for community persistence.
Another form of data aggregation is the accumulation of individual-level data
into a single node, usually referring to species (Ings et al. 2009). Nevertheless,
sometimes individuals display a variety of behaviors and morphological traits; for
example, the invasive ant Solenopsis invicta showed a highly variable trophic level
position between colonies in a 0.5-ha plot, with some colonies acting as primary
consumers whereas others were top predators (Roeder and Kaspari 2017). How
does this variability influence on the properties of ecological networks? As pro-
posed for space and time, the aggregation of data overestimates connectivity and
180 L. Cagnolo
underestimates specialization. For example, Tur et al. (2014) compared the modu-
larity of a plant-pollinator network resolved at the level of plant species and pollina-
tor individuals. Their main result reflects an increase in the modularity at the
individual’s level, mainly driven by phenology (Tur et al. 2014). These studies
reveal large variability that individual partners show in their interactions; conse-
quently, the individual-based networks do not seem to behave as the species-level
network.
While depending on the question under study, the patterns of networks com-
posed of aggregated data may lead to wrong conclusions (Poisot et al. 2014),
which may result in a misunderstanding of ecosystem functioning and in reducing
the prediction potential of ecology. Nevertheless, almost all the different kinds of
data aggregation in network studies can be solved if we consciously plan our sam-
pling design, incorporating the spatial and temporal scales that are relevant to the
studied system.
12.7 Using Barcoding Techniques
There are remarkable examples of combinations of theory and natural history for
the development of networks (e.g., Novotny and Basset 2005; Novotny et al. 2010),
but the time necessary to acquire taxonomical and natural history knowledge is usu-
ally scarce. Ecologists have incorporated different approaches to solve the difficulty
of cataloging interactions in complex environments. One of these tools is sequenc-
ing barcodes directly from DNA extracted from consumers, which provide strong
physical evidence for the host association (Evans et al. 2016). As genes rather than
morphology drive identifications, barcoding is less dependent upon taxonomic
knowledge, making it particularly appreciated for studying poorly known taxa and
ecosystems.
The use of barcoding in the construction of ecological networks is growing rap-
idly not only because it is an easy way of depicting interactions, but also because it
facilitates the discovery of rare ones. Most network studies that used barcoding
techniques coincide in showing a significant increase in the number of detected
interactions, leading to higher complexity and more connected networks (e.g.,
Smith et al. 2008). The utility of barcoding in resolving plant-herbivore-parasitoid
food webs is obvious, and recent studies have applied this approach creatively, pro-
viding responses to interesting questions. For example, González-Varo et al. (2014)
extracted DNA from the surface of seeds in bird feces for the identification of bird–
plant interactions. The difference with traditional frugivory studies lies in the pos-
sibility to evaluate not only “who eats who,” but the effectiveness of the dispersion
process. This example reflects how barcoding techniques are improving network
science and, hopefully, opening questions that may trigger a new wave of network
studies in ecology.
12.8 Final Considerations
The study of networks in the tropics had blossomed in the last 16 years, dramati-
cally increasing the diversity of studied interactions (Fig. 12.1). The evolution of
network studies reveals interesting trends supported by increasing multidisciplinary.
The studies conducted in the last 6 years have revealed that the increase in the diver-
sity of interaction types catalyzed the mixing of concepts and tools from different
areas of ecology and even from different areas of science (Fig. 12.2).
The possibility of incorporating new interactions into network science depends
on the knowledge of natural history and the development of new tools that solve
methodological difficulties. Although there are remarkable examples of combina-
tions of theory and natural history in network studies, the possibilities of develop-
ing research in tropical forests for periods of time long enough to incorporate
sufficient natural history knowledge is usually limited. Ecologists have incorpo-
rated different approaches to solve the difficulty of cataloging interactions in
complex environments. One of these tools is barcode sequencing directly from
DNA extracted from consumers, which provides strong physical evidence for
associations while facilitating phylogenetic analysis (Evans et al. 2016). The
future of networks in the tropics will necessarily rely on metabarcoding tech-
niques to make diversity traceable, particularly regarding metamorphosing
insects. Accordingly, there are promising examples showing differences in net-
works built using barcoding and classical techniques (Smith et al. 2008; Wirta
et al. 2014; Evans et al. 2016).
One of the major challenges of network research in the tropics is to increase level
of complexity. Here, I propose two ways: merging different interaction types into
single networks and disaggregating data into their spatial, temporal, and individual
layers. The multilayer approach requires new concepts and methods that are starting
to be formalized (Pilosof et al. 2017). Particular attention should be paid to the tran-
sitions zones between layers because they could provide clues about keystone nodes
and interactions that may be crucial for community stability and cohesion (Olesen
et al. 2010; Pocock et al. 2012). Besides using the theory and tools developed by
ecologists, we should pay attention to other areas of science such as sociology and
engineering for inspiration.
Unlike any other field of science, ecology deals with the rush of habitat destruc-
tion. The need of ecological studies is particularly urgent in the tropics because the
most diverse ecosystems are in developing economies, where nature conservation
and the necessity of resources exploitation are in conflict. Accordingly, network sci-
ence has the role of connecting species lists to ecosystem functions, a key priority
in conservation ecology.
Acknowledgements L.C. is a career researcher with Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones

Científicas y Técnicas of Argentina. This work was supported by a grant from FONCYT–ANPCYT
(PICT 2014-3168).
182 L. Cagnolo
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Chapter 13
A Useful Guide of Main Indices and Software
Used for Ecological Networks Studies
Reuber Antoniazzi Jr, Wesley Dáttilo, and Victor Rico-Gray
Abstract Complex network analysis allows ecologists to implement interesting

and diverse approaches to study interactions among the most diverse life forms. In
the last decades, several tools and advances have been developed in software, ran-
domizations, and computer graphics; increasing the quantity of ecologists that lead
authorship when these analyses are used in their research. Thereby, some metrics
and indices have been improved and others appeared as novel approaches, establish-
ing a vast quantity of information in literature. In this chapter, you will be able to
find a compendium of the main descriptors currently used in the literature, as well
as the primary information to develop the statistical analysis and graph visualiza-
tion. It is important to have enough criteria when using these metrics and indices,
which must be complemented with both: knowledge concerning natural history and
the logic and limitations of the indices and analysis, in order to avoid misleading
conclusions.
R. Antoniazzi Jr (*) • W. Dáttilo

Red de Ecoetología, Instituto de Ecología A.C., Carretera antigua a Coatepec 351,
El Haya, CP 91070 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
V. Rico-Gray
Instituto de Neuroetología, Universidad Veracruzana,
Av. Dr. Luís Castelazo s/n, CP 91190 Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_13
186
Table 13.1 Principal parameters, indices, functions, and metrics typically used in the analysis of ecological networks
Symbol Network descriptors Description Software
nx Number of nodes Species richness of any trophic level (e.g., plant n1, animal n2) or number of Spreadsheet
individuals
S Network order Total number of nodes, which S = n1 + n2 + ⋯ Spreadsheet
If n represents species richness the network is G (Delmas et al. 2017)
L Network size Number of edges present in the network, i.e., number of pairwise interactions Spreadsheet
(Delmas et al. 2017)
m Number of interactions Interaction frequency in a weighted web (Bascompte and Jordano 2013) Spreadsheet
aij Number of pairwise Pairwise interaction between partners i and j in a weighted web (Bascompte Spreadsheet
interactions between and Jordano 2013)
lower trophic level
species i and higher
trophic level species j
Ai, Aj Total number of Column or row sums in weighted networks (Bascompte and Jordano 2013) Spreadsheet, “bipartite”
interaction records for n1 n2
package in R (Dormann
lower trophic level (i) or i =1
Ai = ∑ j =1 aij ; Aj = ∑ aij et al. 2008), Pajek
higher trophic level (j) (Batagelj and Mrvar 1998)
kj, ki Degree of higher trophic kj is the number of interactions between higher trophic level j and lower Spreadsheet, “bipartite”
level (j) or lower trophic trophic level i package in R (Dormann
level (i) ki is the number of interactions between lower trophic level i and higher trophic et al. 2008), Pajek
level j (Bascompte and Jordano 2013) (Batagelj and Mrvar 1998)
〈km〉 , 〈kn〉 Average degree of any 〈km〉 is average number of interactions for higher trophic level Spreadsheet, “bipartite”
trophic level 〈kn〉 is average number of interactions for lower trophic level (Bascompte package in R (Dormann
and Jordano 2013) et al. 2008), Pajek
(Batagelj and Mrvar 1998)
〈k〉 Average number of Spreadsheet, “bipartite”
interactions per any two L package in R (Dormann
trophic levels ‹k › = et al. 2008), Pajek
n1 + n2
(Batagelj and Mrvar 1998)
R. Antoniazzi Jr et al.
P(k) Degree distribution N( k ) “bipartite” package in R
Probability that a node has k edges within the network, P( k ) = , in which (Dormann et al. 2008),
S
N(k) is the number of nodes with k edges, and S is the number total of nodes in Pajek (Batagelj and Mrvar
the network (Delmas et al. 2017) 1998)
CD Degree centrality Vertex: Simple count of the number of interactions established by a node “bipartite” package in R
(Dormann et al. 2008),
CD(i) = ki, in Freeman (1977) or normalized by the maximum degree Pajek (Batagelj and Mrvar
C 1998)
CD = D
kmax
n
Whole graph: i =1 i k
∑ a ( p ,p ) , in Freeman (1978)
CD′ ( pk ) =
n −1
CC Closeness centrality Measures the proximity of a node to all other nodes in the network “bipartite” package in R
dij (Dormann et al. 2008)
CC ( i ) = ∑ , in Freeman (1978) and Freeman et al. (1979)
j ≠i n − 1
CB Betweenness centrality Gives a measure of times a node is between two others nodes “bipartite” package in R
(Dormann et al. 2008)
g jk ( i ) / g jk
CB ( i ) = 2 ×
j <k ;i ≠ j
∑ ( n − 1) ( n − 2 ) , in Freeman (1977)
CE Eigenvector centrality Provides a measure how influences all other nodes “igraph” package in R
(Csardi and Nepusz 2006)
1
CE ( i ) = ∑AijCE ( j ) , where Aij is 1 if i interacts with j and 0 otherwise, and
λ j
λ is a constant, in Bonacich (1987)
C Connectance Proportion of established interactions relative to all possible interactions Spreadsheet, “bipartite”
package in R (Dormann
L
13 A Useful Guide of Main Indices and Software Used for Ecological Networks Studies
(Jordano 1987), C = for bipartite networks, see more information in et al. 2008)
n1 ⋅ n2
187
Delmas et al. (2017)

(continued)
188

LDq Linkage density The average number of interactions per node in the web, “bipartite” package in R
n2 (Dormann et al. 2008)
1  n1 a a 
LDq =  ∑ k• mn1 ,k + ∑ • k mn2 ,k  in Bersier et al. (2002), and the weighted
2  k =1 a•• a
k =1 •• 
LDq
connectance is calculated as , where S is the total number of all possible
S
interactions in the web
CC Clustering coefficient 2 Ni “bipartite” package in R
For each node i: CCi = where ki is i’s degree and Ni is the total (Dormann et al. 2008)
ki ( ki − 1)
number of interactions between i’s neighbors and the average local clustering
∑ ci
coefficient: CC1 = i , in Watts and Strogatz (1998)
S
For the entire graph: CC = 3N t , where Nt is the number of triangles in graph
2
Nc
G and Nc is the number of 3-nodes subgraphs, in Soffer and Vázquez (2005) and
Saramäki et al. (2007)
MB Modularity Nm MODULAR (Marquitti
 l  d Ad B 
M B = ∑  m −  m 2 m   where Nm is the number of modules in the network, l et al. 2014)
m =1 
 I  I  
is the total number of links, lm is the number of links between nodes in module
m, and dmA and dmB are the sum of the links of all nodes in module s which
belong to A-set and B-set, respectively, in Barber (2007)
ci Among-module A measure of how connected node i is to all modules: “bipartite” package in R
connectivity 2 (Dormann et al. 2008)
NM
k 
ci = 1 − ∑  is  , c ∈ [ 0,1]
S =1  ki 
zi Inside-module K − Ks
connectivity Z i = is , for more details see Guimerà and Nunes Amaral (2005)
SDks
T Matrix temperature T = kU, where ANINHADO (Guimarães
2
1  dij  and Guimarães 2006),
U= ∑ uij , where uij =  . T = 0° is defined for maximum Nestedness Temperature
m.n D 
 ij  Calculator (NTC) (Atmar
nestedness in Atmar and Patterson (1993) and Patterson 1995)
N Nestedness (matrix 100 − T ANINHADO (Guimarães
N= ; which values range from 0 to 1 (maximum nestedness)—See
temperature based) 100 and Guimarães 2006)
above about T (Matrix temperature)
NODF Nestedness metric based n2 n1 ANINHADO (Guimarães
∑ i< j
Mij + ∑ i< jMij
on overlap and decreasing NODF = ; where the first sum is across all pairs of and Guimarães 2006),
fill  n2 ( n2 − 1)   n1 ( n1 − 1)  “bipartite” package in R
 +  (Dormann et al. 2008)
 2   2 
lower trophic level, the second sum is across all pairs of higher trophic level,
n2 and n1 are the total number of lower and higher trophic level, respectively.
Mij = 0 if ki = kj and
nij
Mij = otherwise (Almeida-Neto et al. 2007).
min ( ki ,k j )
η Nestedness without the ( n2 ) Nestedness Temperature

∑ n
i < j ij
rule of decreasing fill η ( n2 ) = , Calculator (NTC) (Atmar
( n2 ) ( n2 )
∑ i< j
min ni ,n j
( ) and Patterson 1995)
here defined for lower trophic level set n2, in Bastolla et al. (2009)
cn Contribution to This metric is a z-score relative to null models: “bipartite” package in R
nestedness  N − Ni  (Dormann et al. 2008)
cni =   , where N is the observed nestedness (NODF) of the network,
 σ Ni 
Ni is the average of nestedness when randomizing just the interactions of the
species i, and σNi is the standard deviation of nestedness when randomizing
just the interactions of the species i (n = 100 randomizations). Positive values
of cni indicate a higher contribution of species (i) to the nested structure

(Saavedra et al. 2011)
189
(continued)
190
W Web asymmetry n2 − n1 “bipartite” package in R
Balance between species richness of any two trophic levels, W = ; (Dormann et al. 2008)
n1 + n2
positive numbers indicate more lower-trophic level nodes; negative, more
higher-trophic level species; rescaled to [−1, 1] (Blüthgen et al. 2007)
AS Mutual dependence Difference between the interaction strengths of partners: “bipartite” package in R
asymmetry ( bij − bji ) aij aij (Dormann et al. 2008)
n1Sij = ; where bij = and b ji = and b values are the
max ( bij ,b ji ) n1i n1 j
proportion of interactions between two partners, aij, relative to the totals of
each partner (n1i), (n1j)
Hi, Hj Diversity of interactions n1 “bipartite” package in R
 aij aij 
(Shannon interactions) Hi = −∑  .ln  (Bascompte and Jordano 2013) (Dormann et al. 2008)
j =1  n1i n1i 
per higher trophic level (i)
or lower trophic level (j)
Es Evenness (Shannon −∑ i ∑ j pij ln pij “bipartite” package in R
entropy) of interactions Es = (Bascompte and Jordano 2013) (Dormann et al. 2008)
across the matrix ln ( n1n2 )
Gqw Generality, or mean n1 “bipartite” package in R
n1 j Hj
number of links per any Gqw = ∑ 2 , adapted from Bersier et al. (2002) by Bascompte (Dormann et al. 2008)
j =1 m
higher trophic level
mutualist and Jordano (2013)
Vulnerability, or mean Replace j by i and n1 by n2 in the equation for Gqw (Bascompte and Jordano 2013)
number of links per any
lower trophic level
Lq Weighted interaction n2 “bipartite” package in R
 n1 n1 j n 
density Lq = 0.5  ∑ 2 Hj + ∑ 1i 2 Hi  (Bascompte and Jordano 2013) (Dormann et al. 2008)
 j =1 m i =1 m 
H2 Interaction diversity i j “bipartite” package in R

 aij aij 
Network-level measure of diversity of interactions. H 2 = −∑∑  .ln  (Dormann et al. 2008)
i =1 j =1  m m
(Blüthgen et al. 2006)
Measure of realized A standardized H2 to account for the total number of records each node has “bipartite” package in R
H 2′ Eltonian specialization (Ai, Aj), (Blüthgen et al. 2006; Devictor et al. 2010) (Dormann et al. 2008) or
in: http://rxc.sys-bio.net/
by Blüthgen and Blüthgen
d′ Species-level measure of ( di − dmin ) c  pij′  “bipartite” package in R
′
specificity d′ = , where di = ∑  pij ln  with c the number of resources, (Dormann et al. 2008)
dmax − dmin j =1  qj 

pij′ the proportion of interactions divided by the sum of performances of node
i, and qj the sum of interactions of resource j divided by the total number of
interactions in the matrix (Blüthgen et al. 2006, 2007)
AS′ Scaled mutual Provides the average difference in the interaction strengths of partners: “bipartite” package in R
dependence asymmetry (Dormann et al. 2008)
n1Sij′ =
∑ ( bij′ − b′ji ) , where ki is the number of interactions for species i, and b′
ij
ki
′
and b ji are scaled interaction-strength values (Bascompte and Jordano 2013)
C-score C-score Represents the average number of checkerboard units for each unique species “bipartite” package in R
M ( M − 1) (Dormann et al. 2008)
pair. For M species, there are P = species-pairs, and hence
2
Cscoreij
Cscore = ∑∑ (Stone and Roberts 1990)
i< j P
(continued)
191
192

Bw Network dissimilarity T  S 
T
Bw = T − CST ( T − 1) − 1 , when CS = 1 − T  , in which T is sites and
T − 1  ∑ ini 

ST is the number of interactions and n is local richness, for more details see
Poisot et al. (2012)
BWN Additive partition of the βWN = β ST + βOS , i.e., the additive partition of the beta diversity of interactions, “betalink” package in R
beta diversity of since β ST (species turnover) and βOS (interaction rewiring) are a subset of βWN (Poisot 2016)
interactions a+b+c
(whittaker beta diversity of networks). Then βW = − 1 , where b
(2 a + b + c ) / 2
is the number of unique species of the first network, c is the number of unique
species of the second network, and a is the number of shared species between
networks.
Gc Network core-peripheral ( Ki − K mean )
Gc = ki = mean number of links for higher or lower trophic level
σ Ki
in a network, kmean = mean number of links for all higher or lower trophic level
in a network and σk = standard deviation of the number of links for all higher
or lower trophic level in a network. Species with Gc > 1 are the node with
more interactions in relation to others in the same trophic level, namely the
central core of highly node of the network (Dáttilo et al. 2013)
“Symbol” refers to common used on literature, “Network Descriptors” to name, a brief description appears in “Description” and when applicable “Software”
refers to the most common to use although others can do the same analysis. See below Table 13.2 for more details about “Software.” Higher trophic level, e.g.,
refers to animals and lower trophic levels to plants, but it can be parasitoid, inquiline, predator, prey, etc. Hereafter, we chose to use n1 to the higher trophic
level (e.g., A) and n2 to lower trophic level (e.g., P) because then we are not being restricted. For more details about network analysis, see Bersier et al. (2002),
Bascompte and Jordano (2007), Dormann et al. (2008), Ulrich et al. (2009), Vázquez et al. (2009), Rayfield et al. (2011), Bascompte and Jordano (2013),
Dáttilo et al. (2016) and Delmas et al. (2017)
13 A Useful Guide of Main Indices and Software Used for Ecological Networks Studies 193
Table 13.2 Some useful software for network analysis and draw graphs
Software Brief description Source
ANINHADO Provides calculation of https://www.guimaraes.
NODF and bio.br/soft.html
Temperature,
commonly used
measures of nestedness
(Guimarães and
Guimarães 2006)
Cytoscape Useful for visualizing http://www.cytoscape.
networks and allows to org/
implement these with
attribute data. This is an
open source software
(Shannon et al. 2003)
Gephi Affords to visualizing https://gephi.org/
and nice exploration for
networks. This is an
open-source and free
software (Bastian et al.
2009)
MODULAR Calculates the http://sourceforge.net/
modularity in networks projects/
using two different programmodular/
modularity metrics and
also includes two null
models (Marquitti et al.
2014)
Pajek It is a profitable http://mrvar.fdv.uni-lj.si/
program for analyzing pajek/
network using various
metrics, as well as
offering good drawing
tools (Batagelj and
Mrvar 1998)
R software “betalink” package Calculates the https://CRAN.R-project.
beta-diversity of org/package=betalink
interactions, besides
providing visualization
of the networks (Poisot
2016)
“bipartite” package Provides helpful tools https://CRAN.R-project.
for visualizing webs org/package=bipartite
and to calculates the
most used indices in
network ecology
(Dormann et al. 2008)
“foodweb” package Measures of food web https://CRAN.R-project.
network structure org/package=foodweb
besides tools for
visualizing graphs
(Perdomo et al. 2012)
(continued)
194 R. Antoniazzi Jr et al.
Software Brief description Source

“igraph” package Provides a good https://CRAN.R-project.
networks analysis and org/package=igraph,
graphs visualization, http://igraph.org/
besides calculates
commonly used indices
(Csardi and Nepusz
2006)
“mangal” package Offers tools to manage http://mangal.io/
data on ecological
interactions (Poisot
et al. 2016)
“network” package Allows to edit network https://CRAN.R-project.
objects (Butts et al. org/package=network
2008)
“statnet” package Allows to perform https://CRAN.R-project.
network data, be the org/package=statnet
representation,
visualization, analysis
and simulation,
(Handcock et al. 2008)
“econullnetr” Useful to detects https://CRAN.R-project.
package resource preferences by org/package=econullnetr
ecological networks
analysis using null
models (Vaughan et al.
2017)
Acknowledgements We thank P. Luna, R. Almeida, and T. Suarez for their comments on the
manuscript.
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Index
A Binary two-mode network, 143

Adaptive dynamic models, 51, 52 Biocoenosis, 19
Agonistic networks Biodiversity, 1, 10, 11, 44
chasing events, 146 Biotic interactions
host-parasite, 127 bottom-up cascading effects, 11
intra and interspecific disputes, 146 coevolution, 5, 6
modules, 147 component of diversity, 3–4
outcomes of, 146 diversification rates, 4, 6
plant-herbivore, 111 diversity maintenance, 6–8
reef fish, 146 and ecosystem functioning, 8–10
resource-use overlap, 146 plants and herbivorous insects, 5
trade-offs, participants, 146 speciation, 3, 4, 6, 85
Analytical approaches, 22–24, 29 species coexistence, 3, 4, 6, 7, 85
Antagonisms, 45, 61, 173 structural patterns, 10
Antagonistic interactions, 4 top-down cascading effects, 11
Antagonistic networks, 112, 113 Bipartite network, 31, 35, 37, 178
Anti-herbivore defenses, 122
Ant-plant interactions, 59, 62, 64
data sharing, 67 C
ecological interactions, 60 Coevolution, 3, 5, 6, 50, 65, 74
extrafloral nectaries, 62 Coevolutionary processes, 112, 118, 119
robustness, 65, 66 Coexistence theory, 7
structural patterns Commensalistic networks, 147, 148
mutualisms, 64 Community dynamics, 46, 51
nestedness, 62 Community matrix, 47
origin and maintenance, 64 Complementarity effect, 9
study limitation, 66 Complexity, 20, 23, 46, 151
Ants–EFN-bearing plant, 63–65 Coupled networks, 68
See also Multilayer networks
Cryptic eco-evolutionary dynamics, 52
B
Barcoding techniques
bird–plant interactions, 180 D
ecological networks construction, 180 Darwin finches, 51
taxonomical and natural history, 180 Direct binary one-mode network, 143

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0
198 Index
Directed weighted one-mode network, 143 space and time, 179

Diversification, 4–6, 54, 111 spatial and temporal scales, 180
Diversity of interactions, 115, 142, 149, 173, 181 specialization, 32, 36, 80, 85, 114,
116, 129
species roles
E centrality, 34
Early ecologists, 17, 19–21 closeness centrality, 34
Eco-evolutionary feedbacks dependence, 34
adaptive dynamic models, 51, 52 functional traits, 36
Darwin finches, 51 specialists and generalists, 35
E. edulis, 53 species strength, 34
multiple-loci genetic models, 51 strongly modular network, 30
mutualisms, 52 strongly nested network, 30
single-locus genetic models, 51 transition zones, 177
tropical, species-rich networks, 53 trophic levels concept, 178, 179
Ecological dynamics, 45–48 unipartite networks, 30
Ecological interactions, 11, 44, 60, 61, 67 Ecosystem functioning, 8–10
Ecological networks, 34–36 Ecosystem management, 10, 11
accelerated species extinction rates, 156 Eltonian niche, 36
aggregated data, 179 Entangled bank, 18, 19, 44
analysis, 186–192 (see also Barcoding Euterpe edulis, 53
techniques) Evolutionary dynamics
biodiversity, 156 antagonistic networks, 50
biological communities, 172 interaction rewiring, 50
bipartite network, 30, 31, 37 mutualisms, 48
cataloging tropical biodiversity, 172 network structure, 50
community degree, 177 pairwise interactions, 48
compartmentalization, 33
connectance and degree, 32
definition, 29 F
degree distribution, 32 Fish-parasite interaction network, 134
evolution of, 172–175 Fleshy-fruited plants, 94
food web, 30, 177 Floral visitation networks, 72, 75, 79
forbidden links, 32, 37 Food web models, 21–24
future studies, 175, 176 Foraging ecology, 60
green revolution, 156 Forbidden links, 22, 32, 37, 52, 82, 83
hubs/supergeneralists, 32 Founding ecologists, 24
individual-level data accumulation, 22, 179 Frugivorous animals, 94
interactions and guilds, 176 (see also Frugivory, 95, 106, 180
Landscape) Functional traits, 10, 36, 83
landscape structure changes, 156, 158 keystone dispersers, 103, 104
linkage density, 31 keystone plants, 104
modularity, 30, 33 keystone species, 103
native vegetation, 156 megafrugivores, 103
nestedness, 32
network formation, 156
nodes and edges, 30 G
phylogeny, 37, 38, 117, 118, 131 Graph theory, 16, 62, 67
plant-centered mutualistic, 177
robustness and resilience, 157
sampling method, 31, 66, 78, 87, 100, 177 H
seed-dispersal networks, 33 Habitat disturbance, 112, 120, 121
single traits, 38 Herbivore feeding behavior, 120
software, 193, 194 Host defensive traits, 119, 120
Index 199
Host-parasite interactions K
connectivity and nestedness, 129 Keystone frugivores, 102
ecological parasitology, 128
habitat and food resource, 132
host body size, 130 L
host diet, 131 Landscape
host specificity, 132, 133 classification, 158
larval stages, 133 configurational and compositional
molecular approach, 137 heterogeneities, 158
nested pattern, 130 description, 158
phylogenetic history, 130 human society and biological processes, 158
robustness, 134, 135 interaction networks
specialization, 128 (see Interaction networks)
species introduction, 135 observing agent, 158
Host-parasite networks organization levels, 159
community level, 133 seasonal migration, birds, 158
structure, 135, 136 Latitudinal gradient, 6, 75, 85, 86, 113, 149
tropical and temperate environments, 129
M
I Marine food webs
Indirect weighted one-mode network, 143 central species, 145
Individual-based networks, 22, 179 keystone species, 145
Interaction networks monophagous consumers, 144
community structure, 160 predation, 144
competitive pressure variation, 161 primary producers, redundancy and
empirical evidence, 165 complementarity, 146
empirical studies, 166 polyphagous consumers, 145
environmental degradation, 164 productivity, temperature and habitat
invasive exotic species, 66, 162 complexity, 146
landscape and systems’ stability/ richness and abundance, 145
productivity, 160 triggering phase shifts, 145
landscape heterogeneity effect, 158, trophic interactions effect, 145
161, 163 Mastozoochory dispersal syndrome, 102
landscape homogenization, 162 Mathematical models, 15, 16, 49
mutualistic, 59, 73, 93, 165 Mathematics interactions, 16
nestedness and complementary Modularity, 33, 38, 50, 81, 101, 113, 129,
specialization, 160 149, 179
organisms movement, 161 Molecular approach, 45, 122, 137
populations’ densities, 164 See also Barcoding techniques
restoration process, 165 Multilayer networks, 166, 175–177
richer communities, 163 Multiple-loci genetic models, 51
spatial insurance hypothesis, 166 Mutualisms, 17, 44, 45, 61, 62, 64, 68
spatially/temporally oriented hierarchical Mutualistic networks, 23, 147, 148, 166, 175–177
complex system, 160
spatial-temporal variations, 165
temporal and spatial dynamics, 166 N
theoretical models, 162 Naturgemälde, 19
Interaction rewiring, 47, 50, 51 Neotropical partial networks, 79
Invasive species, 66, 136, 151, 162, 179 Nested-hierarchy model, 21
Nestedness, 32, 46, 62, 65, 81, 113, 129, 134,
144, 162, 165
J Network modularity, 112, 116, 118
Jacobian matrix, 46, 47 See also Modularity
200 Index
Network theory, 47 mechanisms

Neutral–niche continuum model forbidden links hypothesis, 82
continuum existence, 83 missing link matrix, 82
description, 83, 84 morphological matching hypothesis, 83
niche- and neutral-based processes, 84 neutral hypothesis, 82
species interactions, 84 metadata, 75
in trait diversity, 84 modularity, 81, 82
Niche complementarity, 105, 106 naturalists, 74
Niche model, 21 nestedness, 81
Niche theory, 7 network thinking, 74 (see also Neutral–
Non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis niche continuum model)
(NMDS), 104, 105 New World hummingbird-flower
assemblages, 86
opposite latitudinal trend, 86
P phytocentric approach, 78
Pairwise interaction models, 48 positive, negative and neutral
Parasitism, 128, 131, 133, 146, 158, 178 interactions, 77
Participation coefficient (PC), 35 research, published articles, 75
Phenomenological models, 21, 22 seed dispersal webs, 79
Phylogeny, 37, 38, 117, 118, 131 spatial scale and sampling effort, 86
Plant–animal interactions, 8, 32, 81 taxonomic modules, 85
Plant-herbivore networks tropical high-altitude grassland, 85
antagonistic networks, 112 tropics and non-tropics, 78
barcoding, 180 zoocentric approach, 78
distribution, 114 Population-level models, 21, 22, 179
diversification, 111
ecological factors, 117
evolutionary interaction, 112 R
genetic diversity, 119 Rapid evolution
habitat disturbance, 112, 121 biodiversity patterns, 44
habitat type, 115 high-intimacy mutualisms, 45
herbivore feeding behavior, 120 low-intimacy mutualisms, 45
host defensive traits, 119, 120 species-rich networks, 53
phylogeny, 118
plant diversity, 118
spatiotemporal variation, 116 S
structure, 113 Seed-dispersal networks, 33, 102
in tropics, 113, 114 classification, 95
Plant-lepidopteran network, 121 dispersers’ guilds, 101
Plant phylogeny, 118 ecosystem functioning, 95
Plant-pollinator networks, 82, 83 extinction simulation analyses, 99
animal-pollinated plants, 74 frugivorous, 94
asymmetric interactions, 80 functional traits (see Functional traits)
catastrophic/gradual events, 85 habitat types, 98
complex interaction networks, 74 interaction sampling method, 100
comprehensive and partial, 77 keystone dispersers, 102
degree distribution and interaction keystone frugivores, 95, 102
strength, 80 keystone species, 101
distribution of, 75, 76 late-successional species, 107
ecology and evolution, 74 methodological bias, 99
geographical and sampling biases, 79 Neotropics and Paleotropics, 99
global distribution, 75–77 plants, 95
historical climate stability, 85 temporal and spatial distribution, 96–98
low connectance, 79–80 Selection effect, 9
Index 201
Single-locus genetic models, 51 environmental and ecological gradients, 149

Spatiotemporal variation, 117 food webs, 149
Specialization, 32, 36, 112–114, 116, 118–122 and humans, 151, 152
Speciation, 3, 4, 85 large-scale processes and environmental
Species coexistence, 3, 4, 7, 8, 85, 145 filters, 149 (see also Marine food
Species interactions, 7, 10, 22, 24, 32, 38, 45, 83 webs)
Species roles at macroecological scales, 150
centrality, 34 negative, positive/neutral interactions, 142
closeness centrality, 34 nested networks, 144
dependence, 34 productive and biologically diverse
functional traits, 36 ecosystems, 141
specialists and generalists, 35 reef fish and benthic community, 143
strength, 34 regional diversity patterns, 149
Stability analysis, 46 species collection, 142
structural patterns, 149
terrestrial environments, 144
T underwater surveys, remote video recordings
Trait evolution models, 49 and indirect evidence, 142
Trophic interactions, 17, 23, 111, 112, 121 See also Agonistic networks
Trophic levels concept, 178, 179
Tropical forests, 2
Tropical reefs U
binary cleaning networks, 150 Unipartite networks, 30, 31, 134
biogenic, 142
biogeographic perspective, 149
dwellers and visitants, 142 W
emergent regularities, 144 Weighted two-mode network, 143

Ecological Networks in The Tropics

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What is the book about?

What is the book about?

What topics related to ecological networks are discussed in the book?

What topics related to ecological networks are discussed in the book?

Wesley Dáttilo · Victor Rico-Gray Editors

ISBN 978-3-319-68227-3 ISBN 978-3-319-68228-0 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017959324

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The astonishing diversity of life is simultaneously a source of wonder and a chal-

1 Tropical Biodiversity: The Importance of Biotic Interactions

9 Host-Parasite Networks: An Integrative Overview

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid

Ellen Andresen, Víctor Arroyo-Rodríguez, and Federico Escobar

E. Andresen (*) • V. Arroyo-Rodríguez

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 1

surmounted with advances in community phylogenetics (Weber et al. 2017). Total

Recent studies on mutualistic networks strongly suggest that coevolution does

Diversity maintenance—the coexistence of species in the same time and space—

indirect or higher-order interactions play a crucial role in determining diversity

1.4 Biotic Interactions and Ecosystem Functioning

It is undeniable that the functioning of tropical forests relies on biotic interactions

was more important than species traits in determining a species’ contribution to

1.5 Management and Conservation Implications

Arroyo-Rodríguez V, Melo FPL, Martínez-Ramos M et al (2017) Multiple successional pathways

Abstract The complex web of inter-relationships observed in nature that confronted

T.C. Ings (*) • J.E. Hawes

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 15

Box 2.1 Interactions with Mathematics

Box 2.2 Interactions with Social Sciences

2.2 Pioneering Natural Historians

Pioneers in the succession of ecological networks include Hippocrates, Aristotle

series by the founding microbiologist Antoine van Leeuwenhoek to produce what

Humboldt, whose influence on Darwin, amongst others, cannot be underestimated

2.3 Early Ecologists

As Darwin famously continued to focus on competition, many of the other pioneers

Germany (Thienemann 1926) and of G. Evelyn Hutchinson in North American

2.4 Food Web Models

The validity of comparing models based on their ability to reproduce structural

2.5 Modern Developments in Ecological Network Analysis

address more detailed questions. As these developments represent a large body

2.6 Concluding Remarks

Abstract Ecological networks describe species interactions in ecological processes.

Ecological networks describe the interactions between species in different ecological

D.M. Dehling (*)

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 29

3.2 Indices to Describe the Topology of Ecological Networks

(Fig. 3.1c). This asymmetry hence suggests that—contrary to expectation—mutual-

3.3 Indices to Describe the Roles of Individual Species

unobserved links, especially in under-sampled networks (Jordano 2016). Controlling

Dalsgaard B, Schleuning M, Maruyama PK et al (2017) Opposed latitudinal patterns of network-­

Vizentin-Bugoni J, Maruyama PK, Sazima M (2014) Processes entangling interactions in communi-

Abstract The perception that the complexity of tropical ecological interactions is

R.L.G. Raimundo (*)

© Springer International Publishing AG 2018 43

Tropical ecological interactions provided empirical foundations for evolutionary

More than 150 years later, understanding general mechanisms whereby ecologi-

4.2 Ecological Dynamics

1 Tropical Biodiversity: The Importance of Biotic Interactions

9 Host-Parasite Networks: An Integrative Overview

1.4 Biotic Interactions and Ecosystem Functioning

1.5 Management and Conservation Implications

2.3 Early Ecologists

2.4 Food Web Models

2.5 Modern Developments in Ecological Network Analysis

2.6 Concluding Remarks

3.2 Indices to Describe the Topology of Ecological Networks

3.3 Indices to Describe the Roles of Individual Species

Dalsgaard B, Schleuning M, Maruyama PK et al (2017) Opposed latitudinal patterns of network-

4.2 Ecological Dynamics

4.3 Evolutionary Dynamics

4.4 Eco-evolutionary Dynamics

5.2 Ant–Plant Interactions in a Network Perspective

5.4 The Robustness of Ant–Plant Networks

5.6 Future Directions in the Study of Ant–Plant Networks

e vidence that a high diversity of functional traits promotes greater importance of

6.2 A Profile of Pollination Network Studies

6.3 Global Distribution of the Studies

6.4 Comprehensive Versus Partial Networks and Habitats

6.5 Sampling Methods

6.6 Structure and Drivers of Pollination Networks

6.7 General Network Patterns

6.7.1 Low Connectance

6.7.2 Uneven Degree Distribution and Interaction Strength

6.7.3 Asymmetric Interactions

6.8.1 Contemporary Mechanisms

“Neutral–Niche Continuum Model” for Species

6.8.4 Historical Drivers of Interactions

6.9 I s There a Latitudinal Gradient of Specialization

6.10 Concluding Remarks

7.3 Basic Network Descriptors and Methodological Bias

7.4 Methodological Bias

7.5.1 Dispersers’ Guilds

7.5.2 Keystone Species in Tropical Seed Dispersal Networks

7.5.3 Keystone Dispersers

7.5.4 Keystone Plants

7.7 Keystone Dispersers’ Functional Traits

7.8 Keystone Plants Functional Traits

7.10 Conservation Implications