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Networking nutrients: how nutrition determines the structure of ecological networks

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jordan CuffORCiD, Professor Darren Evans, Dr Fredric WindsorORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).


Abstract

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. 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. 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.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.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Cuff JP, Evans DM, Vaughan IP, Wilder SM, Tercel MPTG, Windsor FM

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Journal of Animal Ecology

Year: 2024

Pages: epub ahead of print

Online publication date: 30/06/2024

Acceptance date: 29/05/2024

Date deposited: 29/05/2024

ISSN (print): 0021-8790

ISSN (electronic): 1365-2656

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14124

DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14124

Data Access Statement: The data presented in this manuscript are available online via Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.6516934 (Cuff, Evans, et al., 2022).


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Funding

Funder referenceFunder name
European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme
Royal Society Challenge (grant number: CHL\R1\180156)

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