Journal
ECOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 17, Issue 4, Pages 454-463Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/ele.12245
Keywords
seasonality; modularity; phylogeny; traits; evolutionary history; current and past climate; ecological networks; Avian seed dispersal; macroecology; weighted bipartite networks
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Funding
- Hesse's Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and the Arts
- German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
- German Research Foundation (DFG)
- European Research Council [ERC-2012-StG-310886-HISTFUNC]
- Carlsberg Foundation
- Danish National Research Foundation of the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate
- Helmholtz Association [VH-NG 247]
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Modularity is a recurrent and important property of bipartite ecological networks. Although well-resolved ecological networks describe interaction frequencies between species pairs, modularity of bipartite networks has been analysed only on the basis of binary presence-absence data. We employ a new algorithm to detect modularity in weighted bipartite networks in a global analysis of avian seed-dispersal networks. We define roles of species, such as connector values, for weighted and binary networks and associate them with avian species traits and phylogeny. The weighted, but not binary, analysis identified a positive relationship between climatic seasonality and modularity, whereas past climate stability and phylogenetic signal were only weakly related to modularity. Connector values were associated with foraging behaviour and were phylogenetically conserved. The weighted modularity analysis demonstrates the dominating impact of ecological factors on the structure of seed-dispersal networks, but also underscores the relevance of evolutionary history in shaping species roles in ecological communities.
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