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Intervality and coherence in complex networks
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Domínguez-García, Virginia, Johnson, Samuel and Muñoz, Miguel A. (2016) Intervality and coherence in complex networks. Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science, 26 (6). 065308. doi:10.1063/1.4953163 ISSN 1054-1500.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4953163
Abstract
Food webs—networks of predators and prey—have long been known to exhibit “intervality”: species can generally be ordered along a single axis in such a way that the prey of any given predator tend to lie on unbroken compact intervals. Although the meaning of this axis—usually identified with a “niche” dimension—has remained a mystery, it is assumed to lie at the basis of the highly non-trivial structure of food webs. With this in mind, most trophic network modelling has for decades been based on assigning species a niche value by hand. However, we argue here that intervality should not be considered the cause but rather a consequence of food-web structure. First, analysing a set of 46 empirical food webs, we find that they also exhibit predator intervality: the predators of any given species are as likely to be contiguous as the prey are, but in a different ordering. Furthermore, this property is not exclusive of trophic networks: several networks of genes, neurons, metabolites, cellular machines, airports, and words are found to be approximately as interval as food webs. We go on to show that a simple model of food-web assembly which does not make use of a niche axis can nevertheless generate significant intervality. Therefore, the niche dimension (in the sense used for food-web modelling) could in fact be the consequence of other, more fundamental structural traits. We conclude that a new approach to food-web modelling is required for a deeper understanding of ecosystem assembly, structure, and function, and propose that certain topological features thought to be specific of food webs are in fact common to many complex networks.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | Q Science > QH Natural history Q Science > QP Physiology |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Mathematics | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Food chains (Ecology) -- Mathematical models, Neurons, Metabolites | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science | ||||||||
Publisher: | American Institute of Physics | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1054-1500 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 10 June 2016 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 26 | ||||||||
Number: | 6 | ||||||||
Article Number: | 065308 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1063/1.4953163 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 15 August 2016 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 August 2016 | ||||||||
Funder: | Spain. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness] (MINECO) | ||||||||
Grant number: | FIS2013-43201-P |
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