Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Identifying flow modules in ecological networks using Infomap
Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Physics. Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre, Gothenburg, Sweden; Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5420-0591
Division of Theoretical Biology, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Physics.
Show others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: Methods in Ecology and Evolution, E-ISSN 2041-210X, Vol. 12, no 5, p. 778-786Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Analysing how species interact in modules is a fundamental problem in network ecology. Theory shows that a modular network structure can reveal underlying dynamic ecological and evolutionary processes, influence dynamics that operate on the network and affect the stability of the ecological system. Although many ecological networks describe flows, such as biomass flows in food webs or disease transmission, most modularity analyses have ignored network flows, which can hinder our understanding of the interplay between structure and dynamics. Here we present Infomap, an established method based on network flows to the field of ecological networks. Infomap is a flexible tool that can identify modules in virtually any type of ecological network and is particularly useful for directed, weighted and multilayer networks. We illustrate how Infomap works on all these network types. We also provide a fully documented repository with additional ecological examples. Finally, to help researchers to analyse their networks with Infomap, we introduce the open-source R package infomapecology. Analysing flow-based modularity is useful across ecology and transcends to other biological and non-biological disciplines. A dynamic approach for detecting modular structure has strong potential to provide new insights into the organisation of ecological networks.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: British Ecology Society , 2021. Vol. 12, no 5, p. 778-786
Keywords [en]
community detection, dynamics, ecological networks, flow, Infomap, modularity, multilayer
National Category
Other Physics Topics Ecology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-181550DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13569ISI: 000621233400001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85101722693OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-181550DiVA, id: diva2:1540588
Available from: 2021-03-29 Created: 2021-03-29 Last updated: 2024-01-17Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Edler, Daniel

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Edler, DanielRosvall, Martin
By organisation
Department of Physics
In the same journal
Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Other Physics TopicsEcology

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 312 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf