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.

明晰物种间的相互作用，以及相互作用网络在物种丧失下的鲁棒性（robustness），是理解物种衰退与灭绝效应的核心前提。在绝大多数已有研究中，不同类型的相互作用网络（如食物网（food web）、寄生网（parasitoid web）、种子传播网络（seed dispersal network）与传粉网络（pollination network））均被单独开展研究。本研究在农业生态系统（agroecosystem）中同时对上述多类网络进行了同步采样调查。研究结果表明，不同网络的鲁棒性存在显著差异；其中包含传粉者的网络尤为脆弱。整体而言，各网络的鲁棒性并未呈现显著的协变关系，这意味着：通过农业环境方案（agri-environment scheme）等手段对某一功能群进行的生态修复，未必能使其他功能群同样获益。部分单一植物物种与众多其他物种的连接程度远超平均水平。此类信息可应用于修复管理工作，因为其能够识别出可潜在为生物多样性（biodiversity）带来超额增益的植物分类群（plant taxa）。