Asymmetric Coevolutionary Networks Facilitate Biodiversity Maintenance Export

@article{citeulike:606334, abstract = {The mutualistic interactions between plants and their pollinators or seed dispersers have played a major role in the maintenance of Earth's biodiversity. To investigate how coevolutionary interactions are shaped within species-rich communities, we characterized the architecture of an array of quantitative, mutualistic networks spanning a broad geographic range. These coevolutionary networks are highly asymmetric, so that if a plant species depends strongly on an animal species, the animal depends weakly on the plant. By using a simple dynamical model, we showed that asymmetries inherent in coevolutionary networks may enhance long-term coexistence and facilitate biodiversity maintenance. 10.1126/science.1123412}, author = {Bascompte, Jordi and Jordano, Pedro and Olesen, Jens M.}, citeulike-article-id = {606334}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1123412}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5772/431}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16627742}, citeulike-linkout-3 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=16627742}, doi = {10.1126/science.1123412}, journal = {Science}, keywords = {coevolution, ecological-interaction, ecology, evolution, mutualism, network, stability}, month = {April}, number = {5772}, pages = {431--433}, posted-at = {2006-04-29 15:16:17}, priority = {2}, title = {Asymmetric Coevolutionary Networks Facilitate Biodiversity Maintenance}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1123412}, volume = {312}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:606334 L3 - citeulike-article-id:606334 N2 - The mutualistic interactions between plants and their pollinators or seed dispersers have played a major role in the maintenance of Earth's biodiversity. To investigate how coevolutionary interactions are shaped within species-rich communities, we characterized the architecture of an array of quantitative, mutualistic networks spanning a broad geographic range. These coevolutionary networks are highly asymmetric, so that if a plant species depends strongly on an animal species, the animal depends weakly on the plant. By using a simple dynamical model, we showed that asymmetries inherent in coevolutionary networks may enhance long-term coexistence and facilitate biodiversity maintenance. 10.1126/science.1123412 IS - 5772 JF - Science EP - 433 TI - Asymmetric Coevolutionary Networks Facilitate Biodiversity Maintenance VL - 312 SP - 431 KW - coevolution KW - ecological-interaction KW - ecology KW - evolution KW - mutualism KW - network KW - stability AU - Bascompte, Jordi AU - Jordano, Pedro AU - Olesen, Jens PY - 2006/04/21/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1123412 ER -