Cycling and reciprocity in weighted food webs and economic networks

Mateusz Iskrzyński, Freek Janssen, Francesco Picciolo, Brian Fath and Franco Ruzzenenti

Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2022, vol. 26, issue 3, 838-849

Abstract: Networks of mass flows describe the basic structure of ecosystems as food webs, and of economy as input–output tables. Matter leaving a node in these networks can return to it immediately as part of a reciprocal flow, or completing a longer, multi‐node cycle. Previous research comparing cycling of matter in ecosystems and economy was limited by relying on unweighted or few networks. Overcoming this limitation, we study mass cycling in large datasets of weighted real‐world networks: 169 mostly aquatic food webs and 155 economic networks. We quantify cycling as the portion of all flows that is due to cycles, known as the Finn Cycling Index (FCI). We find no correlation between FCI and the largest eigenvalues of unweighted adjacency matrices used as a cycling proxy in the past. Unweighted networks ignore the actual flow values that in reality can differ by even 10 orders of magnitude. FCI can be decomposed into a sum of contributions of individual nodes. This enables us to quantify how organisms recycling dead organic matter dominate mass cycling in weighted food webs. FCI of food webs has a geometric mean of 5%. We observe lower average mass cycling in the economic networks. The global production network had an FCI of 3.7% in 2011. Cycling in economic networks (input–output tables and trade relationships) and food webs strongly correlates with reciprocity. Encouraging reciprocity could enhance cycling in the economy by acting locally, without the need to perfectly know its global structure.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13217

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:inecol:v:26:y:2022:i:3:p:838-849

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1088-1980

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Industrial Ecology is currently edited by Reid Lifset

More articles in Journal of Industrial Ecology from Yale University
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().