Networking nutrients: how nutrition determines the structure of ecological networks

Cuff, Jordan P, Evans, Darren M., Vaughan, Ian P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7263-3822, Wilder, Shawn M., Tercel, Maximillian P. T. G. and Windsor, Fredric M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5030-3470 2024. Networking nutrients: how nutrition determines the structure of ecological networks. Journal of Animal Ecology 93 (8) , pp. 974-988. 10.1111/1365-2656.14124

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Abstract

1.Nutrients can shape ecological interactions but remain poorly integrated into ecological networks. Concepts like nutrient-specific foraging nevertheless have the potential to expose the mechanisms structuring complex ecological systems. Nutrients also present an opportunity to predict dynamic processes, such as interaction rewiring and extinction cascades, and increase the accuracy of network analyses. 2.Here, we propose the concept of nutritional networks. By integrating nutritional data into ecological networks, we envisage significant advances to our understanding of ecological processes from individual to ecosystem scales. 3.We show that networks can be constructed with nutritional data to illuminate how nutrients structure ecological interactions in natural systems through an empirical example. Throughout, we identify fundamental ecological hypotheses that can be explored in a nutritional network context, alongside methods for resolving the networks. 4.Nutrients influence the structure and complexity of ecological networks through mechanistic processes including nutritional niche differentiation, functional responses, landscape diversity, ecological invasions and ecosystem robustness. Future research on ecological networks should consider nutrients when investigating the drivers of network structure and function.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Biosciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QL Zoology
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	0021-8790
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 June 2024
Date of Acceptance:	29 May 2024
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2024 13:38
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/170048

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