Stability of Ecological Communities and the Architecture of Mutualistic and Trophic Networks

Building a Network

The relation between the architecture of ecological networks and community stability is important to understand the assembly of complex communities. By combining a model approach and a meta-analysis of a large collection of ecological networks, Thébault and Fontaine (p. 853 ; see the Perspective by Bascompte ) found that network architecture and stability fundamentally differed between trophic networks that involved herbivory and mutualistic networks that involved pollination. These findings have implications for the understanding of community structure, evolution, and response to perturbation.