Journal
JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY
Volume 244, Issue 2, Pages 296-307Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.08.002
Keywords
food web; network structure; graph theory; secondary extinctions; good expansion; spectral scaling; species removal
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We analyse the robustness of food webs against species loss by considering the influence of several structural factors of the networks, such as connectance, degree distribution and expansibility. The last concept refers to the absence of structural bottlenecks in the food web, whose removal separate the network into large isolate clusters. In theory networks with identical connectance can display different expansibility characteristics. Using the spectral scaling method we studied 17 food networks and classified them as good expansion (GE) and not-GE networks. The combination of GE properties and degree distribution of species permitted the classification of food webs into six different classes. These classes characterize the differences in robustness of food webs to species loss. While the webs having uniform degree distributions and displaying GE properties are the most robust to species loss, the presence of bottlenecks and skewed distribution of the number of links per species make food webs very vulnerable to primary removal of species. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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