Inference and analysis of spiec-easi microbiome networks

Abstract

Network analysis facilitates examination of the interactions between different populations in a community. It can provide a range of metrics describing the social characteristics of each population and emergent structural properties of the community, which may be used to address novel ecological questions. Using a publicly available dataset, this chapter provides point-by-point code and instructions to infer and analyze a SPIEC-EASI (SParse InversE Covariance Estimation for Ecological Association Inference) network using free, open source software (R and Gephi).