dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaAnalysis and Assembling of Network Structure in Mutualistic Systems
| Authors | Diego Medan, Roberto P. J. Perazzo, Mariano Devoto, Enrique Burgos, Martin G. Zimmermann, Horacio Ceva, Ana M. Delbue |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0701029 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0701029 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.12.033 |
| Journal | Journal of Theoretical Biology 246 (2007) 510-521 |
Abstract
It has been observed that mutualistic bipartite networks have a nested structure of interactions. In addition, the degree distributions associated with the two guilds involved in such networks (e.g. plants & pollinators or plants & seed dispersers) approximately follow a truncated power law. We show that nestedness and truncated power law distributions are intimately linked, and that any biological reasons for such truncation are superimposed to finite size effects . We further explore the internal organization of bipartite networks by developing a self-organizing network model (SNM) that reproduces empirical observations of pollination systems of widely different sizes. Since the only inputs to the SNM are numbers of plant and animal species, and their interactions (i.e., no data on local abundance of the interacting species are needed), we suggest that the well-known association between species frequency of interaction and species degree is a consequence rather than a cause, of the observed network structure.
{
"annotation_id": "44831a8e-b2d1-42f6-a738-2a38d35acfea",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:35.584000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:35.584000Z",
"file_hash": "547aa62fae9ba05dff42913673300a037a86d639bb726b6d7e37c155b8d44e8c",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "It has been observed that mutualistic bipartite networks have a nested\nstructure of interactions. In addition, the degree distributions associated\nwith the two guilds involved in such networks (e.g. plants \u0026 pollinators or\nplants \u0026 seed dispersers) approximately follow a truncated power law. We show\nthat nestedness and truncated power law distributions are intimately linked,\nand that any biological reasons for such truncation are superimposed to finite\nsize effects . We further explore the internal organization of bipartite\nnetworks by developing a self-organizing network model (SNM) that reproduces\nempirical observations of pollination systems of widely different sizes. Since\nthe only inputs to the SNM are numbers of plant and animal species, and their\ninteractions (i.e., no data on local abundance of the interacting species are\nneeded), we suggest that the well-known association between species frequency\nof interaction and species degree is a consequence rather than a cause, of the\nobserved network structure.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0701029",
"authors": [
"Diego Medan",
"Roberto P. J. Perazzo",
"Mariano Devoto",
"Enrique Burgos",
"Martin G. Zimmermann",
"Horacio Ceva",
"Ana M. Delbue"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.PE"
],
"doi": "10.1016/j.jtbi.2006.12.033",
"journal_ref": "Journal of Theoretical Biology 246 (2007) 510-521",
"title": "Analysis and Assembling of Network Structure in Mutualistic Systems",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0701029"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "33bdda01-0bfe-45ed-80a6-9e949892c2a3",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}