Publication-driven consistency in food web structures: Implications for comparative ecology

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Network Science
• Bibliometrics

Background:

• Freely available food webs are widely reused for ecological community analysis.
• Reusing food webs can introduce structural biases due to differing methodologies across publications.
• Understanding these biases is crucial for accurate ecological inference.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of publication source on the structural similarity of ecological food webs.
• To identify potential disparities in food web structure that affect inter-publication comparisons.
• To propose methods for mitigating publication-driven structural biases.

Main Methods:

• Quantified structural similarity across 274 food webs from 105 publications.
• Employed a subgraph technique to compare network structures.
• Analyzed similarity based on ecosystem, construction methodology, and publication source.

Main Results:

• No increased structural similarity was found between webs from the same ecosystem or using similar construction methods.
• Food webs sourced from the same publication exhibited high structural similarity.
• This similarity within publications increased over time.

Conclusions:

• Publication origin is a dominant factor shaping food web structure, overriding ecosystem or methodological similarities.
• The inherent structural similarity of webs within a publication can impede comparative ecological analyses.
• New approaches are needed to address publication-related structural biases in food web research.