Neighborhood benthic configuration reveals hidden social diversity: classified benthic data

Ecological interactions among benthic communities are crucial for shaping marine ecosystems. Understanding these interactions is essential for predicting how ecosystems will respond to environmental changes, invasive species, and conservation management. However, determining the prevalence of species interactions at the community scale is challenging. To overcome this challenge, we employ tools from social network analysis, specifically exponential random graph modeling (ERGM). Our approach explores the relationships among animal and plant organisms within their neighborhoods. Inspired by companion planting in agriculture, we use spatiotemporal co-occurrence as a measure of mixed species interaction. In other words, the variety of community interactions based on co-occurrence defines what we call \"co-occurrence social diversity.\" Our objective is to use ERGM to quantify the proportion of interactions at both the simple paired level and the more complex triangle level, enabling us to mea..., a)     Study Sites The field data selection coincided with a program to quantify changes in the sessile community along a depth gradient in multiple locations of two distant geographic areas. The Spanish islands of Illes Medes and L'illa de Benidorm are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are nature reserves. L'illa de Benidorm is located about 3.5km from the coast, near Benidorm, and has been part of the Sierra Helada Natural Park since 2005. Illes Medes is an archipelago of seven islands about 0.85 km from L'Estartit. It has been protected since 1983 and became a National Protected Natural Park in 2010. These two locations were selected due to their proximity to the coast, ease of sampling, rocky bottoms, and because they are island enclaves close to the coast. b)    Sampling design During May and June 2010, 6 dive sites in Illes Medes and 2 dive sites in L'illa de Benidorm were selected. For each site, except Garbí and Gros due to a lack of suitable substrate, a photophilous aspe..., , # Neighborhood benthic configuration reveals hidden social diversity: classified benthic data Journal: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (series B). Special Issue: Connected interactions: enriching food web research by spatial and social interactions Paper Title: Neighborhood benthic configuration reveals hidden social diversity Authors: Stuart Kininmonth,, Diana Lopez Ferrando,, Mikel Becerro Background: The field data selection coincided with a program to quantify changes in the sessile community along a depth gradient in multiple locations of two distant geographic areas. The Spanish islands of Illes Medes and L'illa de Benidorm are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are nature reserves (figure 1 from paper). L'illa de Benidorm is located about 3.5km from the coast, near Benidorm, and has been part of the Sierra Helada Natural Park since 2005. Illes Medes is an archipelago of seven islands about 0.85 km from L'Estartit. It has been protected since 1983 and became a ...