Ecological flow analysis of network collapse I: New methodology to investigate network collapse dynamics

This research builds on standard ecological network analysis techniques in order to investigate the impact of removing species (nodes) on the remaining of the network species. The flow network is expressed as a system of dynamical equations such that the removal of one node has time-forward impacts on the remaining nodes. The approach allows one to determine the gain or loss experienced by each other compartment in the model and the time for such impact to occur. The general methodology is demonstrated on the Cone Spring Ecosystem. These results indicate that collapse of certain species exert more control on the overall network organization. We also investigate model sensitivity to determine discount rate robustness and discuss further research.
KEYWORDS: Collapse; Discount factor; Donor-controlled models; Ecological network analysis; Extinction time; Food webs

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