Structural trade-offs can predict rewiring in shrinking social networks.
Damien R Farine1,2,3,4
1Department of Collective Behavior, Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Konstanz, Germany.
The Journal of Animal Ecology
|November 7, 2019
Summary
Organisms adapt to shrinking populations by rewiring social networks. A new "second-degree rewiring" rule helps maintain network structure and properties, unlike random connection changes.
Area of Science:
- Network science
- Ecology
- Behavioral ecology
Background:
- Organisms adapt interactions to declining population sizes, impacting biological network resilience.
- Predicting dynamics of shrinking social networks is challenging due to network regulation trade-offs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose and evaluate a biologically plausible "second-degree rewiring" rule for regulating shrinking social networks.
- To demonstrate that second-degree rewiring minimizes impact on network properties compared to random rewiring.
Main Methods:
- Developed an algorithm for second-degree rewiring.
- Analyzed the impact of second-degree rewiring on network properties (mean degree, assortativity, clustering, density).
- Empirically tested the rule using social network data from great tits (Parus major).
Main Results:
- Second-degree rewiring showed less impact on network properties than random connection changes.
- In phenotypic networks, second-degree rewiring better maintained assortativity.
- Great tits empirically demonstrated increased likelihood of forming/strengthening connections with individuals sharing a removed conspecific.
Conclusions:
- Second-degree rewiring is an effective mechanism for maintaining social network structure and properties in shrinking populations.
- This mechanism allows for network regulation without global network knowledge.
- Understanding network structural properties informs how organisms regulate interactions during population decline.
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