Community Ecology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 20: Issue 2
Body size and mobility explain species centralities in the Gulf of California food web
Authors:
R. Olmo Gilabert CICIMAR Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Apartado Postal 592, CP 23094, La Paz, Baja California Sur, México

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A. F. Navia Fundación colombiana para la investigación y conservación de tiburones y rayas, SQUALUS. Calle 10° # 72-35, Apto. 301E, Cali, Valle, Colombia

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G. De La Cruz-Agüero CICIMAR Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Apartado Postal 592, CP 23094, La Paz, Baja California Sur, México

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J. C. Molinero GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany

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U. Sommer GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany

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M. Scotti GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 20, 24105 Kiel, Germany

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Pages:
149–160
Online Publication Date:
Aug 2019
Publication Date:
01 Aug 2019
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/168.2019.20.2.5
Keywords:
Biodiversity; Centrality indices; Ecosystem functioning; Trait ecology
Open access

Abstract

Anthropic activities impact ecosystems worldwide thus contributing to the rapid erosion of biodiversity. The failure of traditional strategies targeting single species highlighted ecosystems as the most suitable scale to plan biodiversity management. Network analysis represents an ideal tool to model interactions in ecosystems and centrality indices have been extensively applied to quantify the structural and functional importance of species in food webs. However, many network studies fail in deciphering the ecological mechanisms that lead some species to occupy the most central positions in food webs. To address this question, we built a high-resolution food web of the Gulf of California and quantified species position using 15 centrality indices and the trophic level. We then modelled the values of each index as a function of traits and other attributes (e.g., habitat). We found that body size and mobility are the best predictors of indices that characterize species importance at local, meso- and global scale, especially in presence of data accounting for energy direction. This result extends previous findings that illustrated how a restricted set of traitaxes can predict whether two species interact in food webs. In particular, we show that traits can also help understanding the way species are affected by and mediate indirect effects. The traits allow focusing on the processes that shape the food web, rather than providing case-specific indications as the taxonomy-based approach. We suggest that future network studies should consider the traits to explicitly identify the causal relationships that link anthropic impacts to role changes of species in food webs.

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Cover Community Ecology
Community Ecology An Interdisciplinary Journal Reporting Progress in Community and Population Studies
Print ISSN:
1585-8553
Online ISSN:
1588-2756

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Community Ecology
Language English
Size A4
Year of
Foundation		 2000
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 3
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1585-8553 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2756 (Online)

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