Data from: The robustness and restoration of a network of ecological networks

Understanding species’ interactions and the robustness of interaction networks to species loss is essential to understand the effects of species’ declines and extinctions. In most studies, different types of networks (such as food webs, parasitoid webs, seed dispersal networks, and pollination networks) have been studied separately. We sampled such multiple networks simultaneously in an agroecosystem. We show that the networks varied in their robustness; networks including pollinators appeared to be particularly fragile. We show that, overall, networks did not strongly covary in their robustness, which suggests that ecological restoration (for example, through agri-environment schemes) benefitting one functional group will not inevitably benefit others. Some individual plant species were disproportionately well linked to many other species. This type of information can be used in restoration management, because it identifies the plant taxa that can potentially lead to disproportionate gains in biodiversity.理解物种间的相互作用关系，以及相互作用网络在物种丧失条件下的鲁棒性（robustness），是理解物种衰退与灭绝效应的关键基础。在绝大多数已有研究中，各类生态网络（如食物网（food webs）、寄生网（parasitoid webs）、种子传播网络（seed dispersal networks）与传粉网络（pollination networks））均被单独开展研究。本研究在农田生态系统（agroecosystem）中同时对上述多类网络进行了采样调查。研究结果表明，不同网络的鲁棒性存在显著差异；其中包含传粉者（pollinators）的网络表现出尤为突出的脆弱性。整体而言，各类网络的鲁棒性并未呈现显著的协同变化趋势，这意味着针对某一功能群（functional group）的生态修复（ecological restoration）措施（例如通过农业环境计划（agri-environment schemes）），未必能同时惠及其他功能群。部分植物物种与其他物种的连接程度远超平均水平。这类信息可应用于修复管理实践，因其能够识别出可潜在推动生物多样性（biodiversity）大幅提升的植物分类群（plant taxa）。