The DOI matches its Crossref record; 39 of the 40 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Food web models: a plea for groups.
Open accessAbstract
The concept of a group is ubiquitous in biology. It underlies classifications in evolution and ecology, including those used to describe phylogenetic levels, the habitat and functional roles of organisms in ecosystems. Surprisingly, this concept is not explicitly included in simple models for the structure of food webs, the ecological networks formed by consumer–resource interactions. We present here the simplest possible model based on groups, and show that it performs substantially better than current models at predicting the structure of large food webs. Our group‐based model can be applied to different types of biological and non‐biological networks, and for the first time merges in the same framework two important notions in network theory: that of compartments (sets of highly interacting nodes) and that of roles (sets of nodes that have similar interaction patterns). This model provides a basis to examine the significance of groups in biological networks and to develop more accurate models for ecological network structure. It is especially relevant at a time when a new generation of empirical data is providing increasingly large food webs.
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“a feature commonly observed in complex ecological networks and thought to enhance their stability and persistence”
From A Food Web Model of the Serengeti: Stability, Dynamics and Indirect Effects (2026) · cites this paper as Allesina and Pascual 2009
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“The group model [12], known as a stochastic block model in the statistical literature [57], was previously treated in a maximum-likelihood framework.”
From Spatial Guilds in the Serengeti Food Web Revealed by a Bayesian Group Model (2011) · cites this paper as [12]
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“Although compartmental structure may be significant at one scale of analysis, compartments alone do not account for much of the topological structure in food webs.”
From Spatial Guilds in the Serengeti Food Web Revealed by a Bayesian Group Model (2011) · cites this paper as [12]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Allesina, S., & Pascual, M.
- Affiliations
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
- ORCID
- Pascual, Mercedes
- Venue
- Ecology Letters
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2009-06-05
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 652-662
- ISSN
- 1461-023X (ISSN-L)
- 1461-0248
- OpenAlex
- W2097186933
- Cited by
- 149
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 7.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Ecology Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Sustainability and Ecological Systems Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Applied Mathematics › Mathematical and Theoretical Epidemiology and Ecology Models
- Keywords
- food web structure, ecological networks, consumer-resource interactions, compartments, network roles, biological networks
- MeSH terms
- Algorithms, Animals, Models, Theoretical, Food Chain, Biodiversity
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