P20_00736 - Redes ecológicas: de los motivos de inte

A whole suite of ecological interactions among species support the Web of Life by providing key functional links among species. While the effects of the present biodiversity crisis have been largely focused on the loss of species, a missed component of biodiversity loss that often accompanies or even precedes species disappearance is the extinction of ecological interactions. A large body of evidence from field experimental ecology shows that cascading effects are most often triggered by species extinctions. This project challenges these views and explores the interaction topologies that are more resilient to species loss along gradients of human-driven disturbances like forest expansion fronts at edges and scrubland clearing. We combine experimental field data from the Doñana National Park with a large dataset of more than 500 field-sampled ecological networks to analyze and model network structures and fundamental, meso-scale network elements (interaction motifs). We propose to build on the most recent developments for the characterization and quantification of ecological functions within complex, multilayer interaction networks, focusing on plant-animal mutualisms and antagonisms as case studies (seed dispersal, pollination, herbivory) and building-up from interaction motifs emerging within individual-based (as opposed to species-based) interact-ions. The project combines insights and expertise from experimental field ecology, bigdata quantitative analysis, and landscape ecology in a general framework for assessing the topology of Biodiversity’s interactome: its size and the diversity of interaction modes involved. Beyond assessing the size and topology of this interactome (how many interactions? how distinct ecological functions map onto complex interaction networks?), the project provides a new conceptual framework to understand how pairwise interactions build-up to form highly complex ecological networks. We further aim to identify robust interaction meso-s