Improving nature conservancy strategies by ecological network theory

Over several decades nature conservancy research has gathered increasing evidence on the processes that drive species extinctions. Nevertheless, the world's ecosystems are currently exposed to a fast wave of species extinctions, and nature conservancy research has to face the challenge of predicting the consequences of extinctions. In the context of complex food webs that compose natural ecosystems, these primary extinctions affect the biomasses and growth rates of all co-existing species, which can eventually lead to secondary extinctions and extinction cascades of multiple species. Network theory provides a tool for predicting the consequences of extinctions for other species and ecosystem functions. In this sense, ecological network theory could become the next cornerstone of nature conservancy research. (C) 2010 Gesellschaft fur Okologie. Published by Elsevier Gmbh. All rights reserved.