Ecological networks

Abstract

Ecosystems are often represented as networks. The structure and function of ecological networks are significant in ecology. The availability of ecological data has been increased over time, thus, large-scale data analyses of ecosystems have attracted attention. In this context, network science plays an important role. Networks quantify complex ecosystems, and they extract knowledge of the systems. Here we introduce such network-based approaches and the current understanding from an ecological network perspective. The recent findings are helpful not only in basic scientific research such as structure-stability relationships but also in applied ecology such as environmental assessment.