Data from: High temporal variability in the occurrence of consumer–resource interactions in ecological networks

Ecological networks have been used to represent interactions between
species as fixed linkages despite that populations naturally oscillate
over time and space. As such, the influence of the persistence of linkages
between species in communities has been overlooked. Unfortunately,
empirical analysis of the temporal variation of trophic networks is
constrained by the lack of data with high spatial, temporal and taxonomic
resolution. Here, we evaluate the spatiotemporal variability of multiple
consumer-resource interactions to quantify the relative dominance of
highly persistent versus poorly persistent interactions, the commonness of
the interaction persistence patterns, and the effect of biotic and abiotic
conditions on these patterns. We took advantage of a dataset from four
large marine intertidal rocky-shore networks monitored seasonally for
three years along 1000 km of the coast of northern Chile. Our results
showed that the communities were characterized by few persistent
interactions and a large number of transient trophic interactions, which
was well described by a common exponential decay in the rank-frequency
relationship of consumer–resource interactions despite dissimilarities in
environmental conditions among sites. These results were independent of
the degree of consumer–resource co-occurrence. Our results stress the need
for more long-term studies that evaluate the temporal variability of
ecological networks.

生态网络（Ecological networks）通常将物种种间相互作用表征为固定的连接关系，然而种群天然会随时间与空间发生动态振荡。正因如此，群落内物种种间连接的持久性对生态系统的影响长期被忽视。遗憾的是，当前针对营养网络（trophic networks）时间动态变化的实证分析，受限于缺乏兼具高空间、时间与分类学分辨率的观测数据集。本研究旨在评估多种消费者-资源相互作用（consumer-resource interactions）的时空变异性，以量化高持久性与低持久性相互作用的相对优势度、相互作用持久性模式的普遍性，以及生物与非生物环境条件对这些模式的影响。研究利用了智利北部沿岸1000公里范围内、历经三年季节性监测的四个大型海洋潮间带岩岸生态网络数据集。结果显示，研究群落以少量持久性相互作用和大量暂时性营养相互作用为核心特征；尽管各监测站点的环境条件存在差异，但消费者-资源相互作用的等级-频率关系普遍符合指数衰减模式，可对该特征进行良好拟合。上述结果与消费者-资源的共现程度无关。本研究结果强调，亟需开展更多长期研究以评估生态网络的时间动态变化。