Sampling bias and the robustness of ecological metrics for plant–damage‐type association networks
Sampling bias and the robustness of ecological metrics for plant–damage‐type association networks
复制标题
植物损害型关联网络的抽样偏差和生态指标的稳健性
DOI：
10.1002/ecy.3922
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发表时间：
2023
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Fagan, William F.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Swain, Anshuman;Azevedo‐Schmidt, Lauren E.;Maccracken, S. Augusta;Currano, Ellen D.;Dunne, Jennifer A.;Labandeira, Conrad C.;Fagan, William F.
在过去的4.1亿年里，植物及其食草昆虫一直是陆地生态景观的主要组成部分，具有复杂的进化模式和相互依赖性。复杂系统的视角允许详细解决这些进化关系以及跨系统的比较和综合。利用保存在化石叶子上的昆虫植食性损害的代理数据（由损害类型或DT表示），功能二分网络表示提供了植物-昆虫协会如何依赖于地质时间，古地理空间和环境变量（如温度和降水）的见解。然而，从这样的网络测量的指标是容易抽样偏差。这种敏感性是特别关注的植物DT协会网络在古生物环境中，采样工作往往是非常有限的。在这里，我们探讨了功能二分网络指标的采样强度的敏感性，并确定采样阈值以上的指标出现强大的采样努力。在广泛的采样工作，我们发现网络指标的影响较小的采样偏差和/或样本大小比丰富度指标，这是经常使用的化石植物DT相互作用的研究。这些结果保证了植物DT网络的交叉比较提供了对网络结构和功能的见解，并支持它们在古生态学中的广泛使用。此外，这些研究结果提出了新的机会，利用植物DT网络在新生物学陆地生态学，了解功能方面的昆虫植食性跨越地质时间，环境扰动和地理空间。
Plants and their insect herbivores have been a dominant component of the terrestrial ecological landscape for the past 410 million years and feature intricate evolutionary patterns and co‐dependencies. A complex systems perspective allows for both detailed resolution of these evolutionary relationships as well as comparison and synthesis across systems. Using proxy data of insect herbivore damage (denoted by the damage type or DT) preserved on fossil leaves, functional bipartite network representations provide insights into how plant–insect associations depend on geological time, paleogeographical space, and environmental variables such as temperature and precipitation. However, the metrics measured from such networks are prone to sampling bias. Such sensitivity is of special concern for plant–DT association networks in paleontological settings where sampling effort is often severely limited. Here, we explore the sensitivity of functional bipartite network metrics to sampling intensity and identify sampling thresholds above which metrics appear robust to sampling effort. Across a broad range of sampling efforts, we find network metrics to be less affected by sampling bias and/or sample size than richness metrics, which are routinely used in studies of fossil plant–DT interactions. These results provide reassurance that cross‐comparisons of plant–DT networks offer insights into network structure and function and support their widespread use in paleoecology. Moreover, these findings suggest novel opportunities for using plant–DT networks in neontological terrestrial ecology to understand functional aspects of insect herbivory across geological time, environmental perturbations, and geographic space.