PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Matthew K. Lau
AU  - Stuart R. Borrett
AU  - Benjamin Baiser
AU  - Nicholas J. Gotelli
AU  - Aaron M. Ellison
TI  - Ecological Network Metrics: Opportunities for Synthesis
AID  - 10.1101/125781
DP  - 2017 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 125781
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/26/125781.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/04/26/125781.full
AB  - Network ecology provides a systems basis for approaching ecological questions, such as factors that influence biological diversity, the role of particular species or particular traits in structuring ecosystems, and long-term ecological dynamics (e.g. stability). Network theory has enabled ecologists to quantify not just the degree but also the architecture of ecological complexity. Synthesizing recent reviews and developments in the network ecology literature, we identify areas where efforts could have a major impact on the field. We point toward the the need for: integrating network metrics and their terminology across sub-disciplines; benchmarking new network algorithms and models to increase mechanistic understanding; and improving tools for sharing ecological network research, in particular “model” data provenance, to increase the re-producibility of network models and analyses. Given the impact that network theory and methods have had on the field of ecology, advances in these areas area likely to have ramifications across ecology and allied fields.