Phylogenetic Proximity and Nestedness in Mutualistic Ecosystems

TL;DR

This paper explores how phylogenetic proximity influences contact patterns in mutualistic ecosystems and finds that nestedness arises mainly from species' generalist behavior rather than phylogenetic closeness.

Contribution

The study introduces new theoretical tools to analyze the impact of phylogenetic proximity on nestedness in mutualistic networks and demonstrates that nestedness is primarily driven by generalist behavior.

Findings

Phylogenetic proximity is compatible with nestedness but does not determine it.

Nestedness results from species acting as generalists with many contacts.

Nested ecosystems exhibit high phylogenetic diversity.

Abstract

We investigate how the pattern of contacts between species in mutualistic ecosystems is affected by the phylogenetic proximity between the species of each guild. We develop several theoretical tools to measure that effect and we use them to examine some real mutualistic sytems. We aim at establishing the role of such proximity in the emergence of a nested pattern of contacts. We conclude that although phylogenetic proximity is compatible with nestedness it can not be claimed to determine it. We find that nestedness can instead be attributed to a general rule by which species tend to behave as generalists holding contacts with counterparts that already have a large number of contacts. A nested ecosystem generated by this rule, shows high phylogenetic diversity. This is to say, the counterparts of species having similar degrees are not phylogenetic neighbours.