Data from: "Disentangling nestedness" disentangled

Analytical research indicates that the ‘nestedness’ of mutualistic networks facilitates the coexistence of species by minimizing the costs of competition relative to the benefits of facilitation. In contrast, James et al. recently argued that a more parsimonious explanation exists: the persistence of a community and its constituent species depends more on their having many interactions (high connectance and high degree, respectively) than for these interactions to be organized in any particular manner. Here we demonstrate that these conclusions are an unintended consequence of the fact that the methodology of ref. 2 directly changed the number of interactions of each species—and hence their expected persistence. When these changes are taken into account, we find a significant, positive relationship between nestedness and network persistence that reconfirms the importance of nestedness in mutualistic communities. There is a Reply to this Brief Communication Arising by James, A., Pitchford, J. W. & Plank, M. J. Nature 500, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12381 (2013).分析类研究表明，互利共生网络（mutualistic networks）的嵌套性（nestedness）可通过使竞争成本相较于促进作用收益降至最低的方式，助力物种共存。与之相对，James等人近期提出了更为简洁的解释：群落及其组成物种的存续，更多取决于自身拥有大量交互作用（分别对应高连接度（connectance）与高交互度数（degree）），而非这些交互作用以特定模式组织。本研究证实，上述结论实为文献[2]的研究方法直接改变了每个物种的交互数量——进而改变其预期存续概率——这一意外后果。当将上述方法带来的改变纳入考量后，我们发现嵌套性与网络存续度之间存在显著的正相关关系，这再次印证了嵌套性在互利共生群落中的重要性。本文针对James A.、Pitchford J. W.与Plank M. J.发表于《自然》（Nature）第500卷，DOI为10.1038/nature12381（2013年）的《简短通讯商榷》一文作出回应。