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Vulnerable species interactions are important for the stability of mutualistic networks

View ORCID ProfileBenno I. Simmons, Hannah S. Wauchope, Tatsuya Amano, Lynn V. Dicks, William J. Sutherland, Vasilis Dakos
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/604868
Benno I. Simmons
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, United Kingdom
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  • ORCID record for Benno I. Simmons
  • For correspondence: benno.simmons@gmail.com
Hannah S. Wauchope
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, United Kingdom
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Tatsuya Amano
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, United Kingdom
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, University of Cambridge, 16 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1SB, United Kingdom
School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, 4072 Queensland, Australia
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Lynn V. Dicks
School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, NR4 7TL, United Kingdom
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William J. Sutherland
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, The David Attenborough Building, Pembroke Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QZ, United Kingdom
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Vasilis Dakos
Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution de Montpellier (ISEM) Université de Montpellier, place Eugène Bataillon, UMR 5554, CC065, 34095 Montpellier cedex 05, France
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Abstract

Species are central to ecology and conservation. However, it is the interactions between species that generate the functions on which ecosystems and humans depend. Despite the importance of interactions, we lack an understanding of the risk that their loss poses to ecological communities. Here, we quantify risk as a function of the vulnerability (likelihood of loss) and importance (contribution to network stability in terms of species coexistence) of 4330 mutualistic interactions from 41 empirical pollination and seed dispersal networks across six continents. Remarkably, we find that more vulnerable interactions are also more important: the interactions that contribute most to network stability are those that are most likely to be lost. Furthermore, most interactions tend to have more similar vulnerability and importance across networks than expected by chance, suggesting that vulnerability and importance may be intrinsic properties of interactions, rather than only a function of ecological context. These results provide a starting point for prioritising interactions for conservation in species interaction networks and, in areas lacking network data, could allow interaction properties to be inferred from taxonomy alone.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY 4.0 International license.
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Posted April 10, 2019.
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Vulnerable species interactions are important for the stability of mutualistic networks
Benno I. Simmons, Hannah S. Wauchope, Tatsuya Amano, Lynn V. Dicks, William J. Sutherland, Vasilis Dakos
bioRxiv 604868; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/604868
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Vulnerable species interactions are important for the stability of mutualistic networks
Benno I. Simmons, Hannah S. Wauchope, Tatsuya Amano, Lynn V. Dicks, William J. Sutherland, Vasilis Dakos
bioRxiv 604868; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/604868

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