Nestedness in mutualistic networks
Rudolf P. Rohr, Miguel A. Fortuna, Bartolo Luque, and Jordi Bascompte

TL;DR
This paper clarifies the role of nestedness in mutualistic networks, emphasizing the importance of network structure and correcting previous misconceptions about its effects on biodiversity.
Contribution
It highlights the misapplication of formulas from fully connected networks to sparse empirical networks, resolving contradictions in previous simulation and analytical results.
Findings
Nestedness influences biodiversity in mutualistic networks.
Incorrect application of formulas led to previous contradictions.
Proper analysis aligns simulations with analytical predictions.
Abstract
James et al. (2012) presented simulations that apparently falsify the analytical result by Bastolla et al. (2009), who showed that nested mutualistic interactions decrease interspecific competition and increase biodiversity in model ecosystems. This contradiction, however, mainly stems from the incorrect application of formulas derived for fully connected networks to empirical, sparse networks.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsPlant and animal studies · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Complex Network Analysis Techniques
