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How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Ovaskainen, O; Tikhonov, G; Dunson, D; Grøtan, V; Engen, S; Sæther, B-E; Abrego, N
Published in: Proceedings. Biological sciences
May 2017

Estimation of intra- and interspecific interactions from time-series on species-rich communities is challenging due to the high number of potentially interacting species pairs. The previously proposed sparse interactions model overcomes this challenge by assuming that most species pairs do not interact. We propose an alternative model that does not assume that any of the interactions are necessarily zero, but summarizes the influences of individual species by a small number of community-level drivers. The community-level drivers are defined as linear combinations of species abundances, and they may thus represent e.g. the total abundance of all species or the relative proportions of different functional groups. We show with simulated and real data how our approach can be used to compare different hypotheses on community structure. In an empirical example using aquatic microorganisms, the community-level drivers model clearly outperformed the sparse interactions model in predicting independent validation data.

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Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

284

Issue

1855

Start / End Page

20170768

Related Subject Headings

  • Water Microbiology
  • Models, Biological
  • Ecology
  • Computer Simulation
  • Biota
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
  • 30 Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
 

Citation

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Ovaskainen, O., Tikhonov, G., Dunson, D., Grøtan, V., Engen, S., Sæther, B.-E., & Abrego, N. (2017). How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 284(1855), 20170768. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0768
Ovaskainen, Otso, Gleb Tikhonov, David Dunson, Vidar Grøtan, Steinar Engen, Bernt-Erik Sæther, and Nerea Abrego. “How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data.Proceedings. Biological Sciences 284, no. 1855 (May 2017): 20170768. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0768.
Ovaskainen O, Tikhonov G, Dunson D, Grøtan V, Engen S, Sæther B-E, et al. How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2017 May;284(1855):20170768.
Ovaskainen, Otso, et al. “How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data.Proceedings. Biological Sciences, vol. 284, no. 1855, May 2017, p. 20170768. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rspb.2017.0768.
Ovaskainen O, Tikhonov G, Dunson D, Grøtan V, Engen S, Sæther B-E, Abrego N. How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2017 May;284(1855):20170768.
Journal cover image

Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

May 2017

Volume

284

Issue

1855

Start / End Page

20170768

Related Subject Headings

  • Water Microbiology
  • Models, Biological
  • Ecology
  • Computer Simulation
  • Biota
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
  • 30 Agricultural, veterinary and food sciences
  • 11 Medical and Health Sciences
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences