FALCON: a software package for analysis of nestedness in bipartite networks

Area of Science:

• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Network Analysis
• Quantitative Biology

Background:

• Nestedness is a key metric for analyzing bipartite ecological networks, such as species-site and species-interaction networks.
• Existing methods for evaluating nestedness and its statistical significance vary, leading to conflicting results and hindering cross-study comparisons.
• The proliferation of diverse nestedness measures and null models presents a challenge for ecologists and evolutionary biologists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a software package, FALCON, for the easy and efficient comparison of nestedness scores and statistical significances.
• To address the inconsistencies arising from the profusion of different nestedness measures and null models in ecological research.
• To provide a robust methodology for analyzing bipartite networks in various ecological and evolutionary contexts.

Main Methods:

• FALCON implements a selection of popular nestedness measures and null models for both binary and weighted networks.
• The software includes six measures and five null models for binary networks, and two measures and four null models for weighted networks.
• An "adaptive ensemble" method is incorporated to mitigate undersampling issues in null distribution calculations.

Main Results:

• FALCON facilitates the comparison of nestedness strength and significance across different methodologies for a given network.
• The software is designed for efficiency and ease of use, with code available in R, MATLAB, and Octave.
• Its modular and extensible design allows users to incorporate additional measures and null models.

Conclusions:

• FALCON offers a standardized approach to nestedness analysis, improving the comparability of results across studies.
• The software supports theoretical investigations into the drivers and consequences of nestedness in ecological and evolutionary systems.
• By consolidating multiple methods, FALCON aids researchers in understanding the structure and dynamics of bipartite ecological networks.