A satellite symposium at NetSci 2023


Dates and location

The symposioum will take place on 11 July 2023, and is part of the NetSci Conference, which will take place on 10-14 July 2023, Vienna


About

While networks have been fundamental to our understanding of the structure, function, and dynamics of socio-ecological systems, they typically include a single interaction type at a time (e.g., facilitation or competition) [1,3]. Nevertheless, in reality, agents (such as species or people) are clearly connected by a myriad of interaction types simultaneously [4,5,7]. Advances in the theory of ‘multilayer’ networks [2,6] provided a promising approach to incorporate multiple interaction types in our descriptions of ecological networks (leading to multiplex networks). One particular application is that of socio-ecological systems, in which layers represent social (e.g., fishermen, policy makers) and ecological (e.g., food webs) systems. Nevertheless, to date ecological and socio-ecological multiplex networks have been understudied. Therefore, we lack an understanding of how multiple social and ecological interaction types affect the dynamics and stability of ecological systems. Developing this theory is crucial in the anthropocene because multiplex structures affect the response of ecological systems to anthropogenic perturbations.


The goal of our Satellite Symposium is to showcase recent progress made in the study of multiplex ecological and socio-ecological networks, and to discuss how these novel approaches can contribute to improving our current understanding of socio-ecological systems.


Organizers

Sonia Kéfi, CNRS, Montpellier, France;

Shai Pilosof, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel;

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References

[1] Bascompte, J., Jordano, P., Melián, C. J. & Olesen, J. M. The nested assembly of plant–animal mutualistic networks. PNAS 100, 9383–9387 (2003).

[2] Boccaletti, S. et al. The structure and dynamics of multilayer networks. Physics Reports 544, 1–122 (2014).

[3] Dunne, J. A., Williams, R. J. & Martinez, N. D. Network structure and biodiversity loss in food webs: robustness increases with connectance. Ecology Letters 5, 558–567 (2002).

[4] Ings, T. C. et al. Ecological networks–beyond food webs. J Anim Ecol 78, 253–269 (2009).

[5] Kéfi, S. et al. More than a meal… integrating non-feeding interactions into food webs. Ecol. Lett. (2012) doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2011.01732.x.

[6] Kivelä, M. et al. Multilayer networks. jcomplexnetw cnu016 (2014) doi:10.1093/comnet/cnu016.

[7] Pilosof, S., Porter M.A., Pascual M., Kéfi S. 2017. The multilayer nature of ecological networks. Nature in Ecology and Evolution. 1: 0101