The network perspective: Vertical connections linking organizational levels

Ferenc Jordán

Ecological Modelling, 2022, vol. 473, issue C

Abstract: Life is organized into more or less well-defined organizational levels, connected both horizontally and vertically. Our knowledge is richer along the horizontal levels (e.g. inter-specific interactions in multispecies communities), while vertical thinking (e.g. individual-level variability of the prey in a predator-prey interaction) is more challenging, more often crossing disciplinary borders. This review overviews the major challenges, concepts and network analysis-related methods related to studying vertical processes, giving a number of examples. It is argued the network theory is essentially about linking parts to the whole, and this is equivalent to connecting units at one level to a larger unit at the next level. Mostly, but not only, social networks, food webs and landscape graphs are discussed. Methods and concepts in network research, both classical and recently emerged, for supporting this vertical thinking are discussed.

Keywords: Network; Biological organization; Hierarchy; Part to whole (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:473:y:2022:i:c:s0304380022002149

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2022.110112

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