How Structured Is the Entangled Bank? The Surprisingly Simple Organization of Multiplex Ecological Networks Leads to Increased Persistence and Resilience
Fig 3
Example of the effect of the structure of non-trophic interactions on network dynamics.
Dynamics of the 14 clusters were run in cases in which the three-dimensional interaction pattern was either the one of the Chilean web (red) or of 500 random networks (grey). In these random networks, the trophic layer is kept constant but the non-trophic links are randomized. See S2 Table for details on parameter values and S8 Fig for a discussion on the sensitivity of the results. Left: Box plot of the final biomass in the 500 random webs as a function of the number of remaining clusters at the end of the simulations. Box width is log-proportional to the counts. Red dot is the position of the configuration observed in the Chilean web (significant biomass difference, p-value = 0.028). Right: Distribution of the number of extinct clusters after the removal of one cluster in the Chilean web (red) and in the 500 random networks (grey), i.e., the number of secondary extinctions. The difference between the two distributions (red and grey) is visible but not statistically significant (chi-square, p-value = 0.0879). Underlying data can be found in the Dryad repository: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.b4vg0 [21].