Data from: Empirical evaluation of neutral interactions in host-parasite networks

While niche-based processes have been invoked extensively to explain the structure of interaction networks, recent studies propose that neutrality could also be of great importance. Under the neutral hypothesis, network structure would simply emerge from random encounters between individuals and thus would be directly linked to species abundance. We investigated the impact of species abundance distributions on qualitative and quantitative metrics of 113 host-parasite networks. We analysed the concordance between neutral expectations and empirical observations at interaction, species and network levels. We found that species abundance accurately predicts network metrics at all levels. Despite host-parasite systems being constrained by physiology and immunology, our results suggest that neutrality could also explain, at least partially, their structure. We hypothesize that trait-matching would determine potential interactions between species, while abundance would determine their realization.尽管基于生态位的过程（niche-based processes）已被广泛用于阐释互作网络（interaction networks）的结构，但近期研究表明中性理论（neutrality）同样具有重要研究价值。在中性假说（Neutral Hypothesis）框架下，网络结构仅由物种个体间的随机偶遇自发形成，因此直接与物种多度（Species Abundance）相关联。本研究针对113组宿主-寄生者互作网络（host-parasite networks），探究了物种多度分布（Species Abundance Distributions）对其定性与定量指标的影响；并从互作、物种及网络三个层面，分析了中性理论预期与实证观测结果之间的一致性。研究结果显示，物种多度能够精准预测各层级的网络指标。尽管宿主-寄生者系统受生理学与免疫学机制约束，但本研究表明中性理论至少可部分解释该类系统的网络结构。我们据此提出假说：性状匹配（Trait-matching）决定了物种间的潜在互作关系，而物种多度则决定了这些潜在互作的实际发生。