A continuum of specialists and generalists in empirical communities

Poisot Thimotée, Kéfi Sonia, Morand Serge, Stanko Michal, Marquet Pablo A., Hochberg Michael E.. 2015. A continuum of specialists and generalists in empirical communities. PloS One, 10 (5):e0114674, 12 p.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0114674

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Quartile : Q1, Sujet : MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES

Liste HCERES des revues (en SHS) : oui

Thème(s) HCERES des revues (en SHS) : Psychologie-éthologie-ergonomie; Staps

Résumé : Understanding the persistence of specialists and generalists within ecological communities is a topical research question, with far-reaching consequences for the maintenance of functional diversity. Although theoretical studies indicate that restricted conditions may be necessary to achieve co-occurrence of specialists and generalists, analyses of larger empirical (and species-rich) communities reveal the pervasiveness of coexistence. In this paper, we analyze 175 ecological bipartite networks of three interaction types (animal hosts–parasite, plant–herbivore and plant–pollinator), and measure the extent to which these communities are composed of species with different levels of specificity in their biotic interactions. We find a continuum from specialism to generalism. Furthermore, we demonstrate that diversity tends to be greatest in networks with intermediate connectance, and argue this is because of physical constraints in the filling of networks.

Mots-clés Agrovoc : écologie animale, écologie

Mots-clés géographiques Agrovoc : France

Classification Agris : P01 - Conservation de la nature et ressources foncières

Champ stratégique Cirad : Axe 6 (2014-2018) - Sociétés, natures et territoires

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