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Quantifying positional importance in food webs: A comparison of centrality indices

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  • Jordán, Ferenc
  • Benedek, Zsófia
  • Podani, János

Abstract

Conservation biology should focus more on the importance rather than the rarity of species, although the definition and quantification of importance are not easy. One approach involves measuring the positional importance (e.g. centrality) of species in ecological interaction networks to provide a basis for species ranking. However, there are many centrality indices, each reflecting a particular aspect of positional importance and therefore giving a rank order of species different from those provided by alternative formulations. Thus, there is a strong need for comparing the available indices and for examining their relative merits in network analysis. In this paper, we apply 13 centrality indices to the “species” (trophic components) of methodologically comparable trophic flow networks, in order to answer the following questions: (1) What is the disagreement between different indices regarding the rank of a given species in a given network? (2) How is this disagreement in performance influenced by the choice of the network? (3) What is the overall relationship among these indices and, in particular, which are the most similar to degree (the simplest index of all, being equal to the number of links pertaining to a given node)? We compare the 13 indices based on the data of nine networks using metric and rank statistics and multivariate analysis procedures. We conclude that (1) different centrality ranks differ in each network; (2) different webs can be characterized by different relationships between ranks but there is a robust pattern of relationships among the indices, some index pairs behaving very similarly in all networks; and (3) it is the index of closeness centrality which provides a rank most similar to that based on degree.

Suggested Citation

  • Jordán, Ferenc & Benedek, Zsófia & Podani, János, 2007. "Quantifying positional importance in food webs: A comparison of centrality indices," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 205(1), pages 270-275.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:205:y:2007:i:1:p:270-275
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.02.032
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. De Montis, Andrea & Ganciu, Amedeo & Cabras, Matteo & Bardi, Antonietta & Mulas, Maurizio, 2019. "Comparative ecological network analysis: An application to Italy," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 714-724.
    2. Cai Gao & Xin Lan & Xiaoge Zhang & Yong Deng, 2013. "A Bio-Inspired Methodology of Identifying Influential Nodes in Complex Networks," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(6), pages 1-11, June.
    3. Almpanidou, Vasiliki & Mazaris, Antonios D. & Mertzanis, Yorgos & Avraam, Ioannis & Antoniou, Ioannis & Pantis, John D. & Sgardelis, Stefanos P., 2014. "Providing insights on habitat connectivity for male brown bears: A combination of habitat suitability and landscape graph-based models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 286(C), pages 37-44.
    4. Stefano Allesina & Mercedes Pascual, 2009. "Googling Food Webs: Can an Eigenvector Measure Species' Importance for Coextinctions?," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(9), pages 1-6, September.
    5. Angelini, Ronaldo & de Morais, Ronny José & Catella, Agostinho Carlos & Resende, Emiko Kawakami & Libralato, Simone, 2013. "Aquatic food webs of the oxbow lakes in the Pantanal: A new site for fisheries guaranteed by alternated control?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 253(C), pages 82-96.
    6. Jordán, Ferenc & Liu, Wei-chung & Mike, Ágnes, 2009. "Trophic field overlap: A new approach to quantify keystone species," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(21), pages 2899-2907.
    7. Gao, Cai & Wei, Daijun & Hu, Yong & Mahadevan, Sankaran & Deng, Yong, 2013. "A modified evidential methodology of identifying influential nodes in weighted networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(21), pages 5490-5500.
    8. Jordán, Ferenc & Osváth, Györgyi, 2009. "The sensitivity of food web topology to temporal data aggregation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(22), pages 3141-3146.
    9. Torres-Alruiz, Maria Daniela & Rodríguez, Diego J., 2013. "A topo-dynamical perspective to evaluate indirect interactions in trophic webs: New indexes," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 363-369.
    10. Livi, Carmen Maria & Jordán, Ferenc & Lecca, Paola & Okey, Thomas A., 2011. "Identifying key species in ecosystems with stochastic sensitivity analysis," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(14), pages 2542-2551.
    11. Losapio, Gianalberto & Jordán, Ferenc & Caccianiga, Marco & Gobbi, Mauro, 2015. "Structure-dynamic relationship of plant–insect networks along a primary succession gradient on a glacier foreland," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 314(C), pages 73-79.
    12. Jordán, Ferenc & Okey, Thomas A. & Bauer, Barbara & Libralato, Simone, 2008. "Identifying important species: Linking structure and function in ecological networks," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 216(1), pages 75-80.

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