“Disentangling nestedness” disentangled

Serguei Saavedra and Daniel B. Stouffer ()
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Serguei Saavedra: *Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD-CSIC), Calle Américo Vespucio s/n, E-41092 Sevilla, Spain
Daniel B. Stouffer: †School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

Nature, 2013, vol. 500, issue 7463, E1-E2

Abstract: Abstract Arising from A. James, J. W. Pitchford & M. J. Plank Nature 487, 227–230 (2012)10.1038/nature11214 Analytical research indicates that the ‘nestedness’ of mutualistic networks facilitates the coexistence of species by minimizing the costs of competition relative to the benefits of facilitation1. In contrast, James et al.2 recently argued that a more parsimonious explanation exists: the persistence of a community and its constituent species depends more on their having many interactions (high connectance and high degree, respectively) than for these interactions to be organized in any particular manner. Here we demonstrate that these conclusions are an unintended consequence of the fact that the methodology of ref. 2 directly changed the number of interactions of each species—and hence their expected persistence. When these changes are taken into account, we find a significant, positive relationship between nestedness and network persistence that reconfirms the importance of nestedness in mutualistic communities1,3. There is a Reply to this Brief Communication Arising by James, A., Pitchford, J. W. & Plank, M. J. Nature 500, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12381 (2013).

Date: 2013
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DOI: 10.1038/nature12380

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