Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Gene Flow

Gene Flow

Gene flow is the transfer of genes among populations, resulting from either the dispersal of gametes or from the migration of individuals.

Ecological Niches

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.

Symbiosis

Symbiosis

Symbiotic relationships are long-term, close interactions between individuals of different species that affect the distribution and abundance of those species. When a relationship is beneficial to both species, this is called mutualism. When the relationship is beneficial to one species but neither beneficial nor harmful to the other species, this is called commensalism. When one organism is harmed to benefit another, the relationship is known as parasitism. These types of relationships often...

Trophic Levels

Trophic Levels

All organisms in an ecosystem occupy a trophic level in the food chain. The lowest level consists of primary producers, which synthesize their food from either solar or chemical energy. Each subsequent level obtains energy from the levels below. Detritivores can occupy any of the levels above primary producers.

What are Biogeochemical Cycles?

What are Biogeochemical Cycles?

The most common elements in organic molecules, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus, are only available in the ecosystem in limited amounts. Therefore, these nutrients must be recycled through both biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem, in processes generally called biogeochemical cycles.

What is an Ecosystem?

What is an Ecosystem?

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Shift in Soil Fauna Feeding Mode With Litter Quality Across Forest Biomes.

Ecology letters·2026

Same author

Natural enemies mediate the impact of plant microbiota on insect-borne virus transmission.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Climatic Legacies Drive Spatial Aggregation of Plants in Drylands.

Global change biology·2026

Same author

Linking Biotic Interactions to Species Stability.

Ecology letters·2026

Same author

Beyond Biomass: How Interactions Shape Species' Contribution to Ecosystem Functioning.

Ecology letters·2026

Same author

Publisher Correction: Greater trophic diversity of soil animal communities under agricultural land use and tropical climate.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Antiviral immunity regulates cnidarian viriomes.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

An ancient anthozoan protein reveals an alternative evolutionary path of antiviral signalling.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

A global research coordination programme is urgently needed for biodiversity.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Avoid overdependence on carbon markets in conservation finance.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Increasing forest disturbance enhances habitat suitability for Europe's large herbivores.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

Same journal

Bacterial genes rescue starving giants.

Nature ecology & evolution·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 16, 2025

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Published on: September 25, 2021

Embedding information flows within ecological networks.

Ulrich Brose^1,2, Myriam R Hirt^3,4, Remo Ryser^3,4

¹Institute of Biodiversity, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany. ulrich.brose@idiv.de.

Nature Ecology & Evolution

|April 4, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Ecological networks include information exchange, not just matter and energy flow. Integrating these in multilayer networks reveals how information transfer impacts community stability and perturbation spread.

More Related Videos

Fluorescently Labeled Bacteria as a Tracer to Reveal Novel Pathways of Organic Carbon Flow in Aquatic Ecosystems

Fluorescently Labeled Bacteria as a Tracer to Reveal Novel Pathways of Organic Carbon Flow in Aquatic Ecosystems

Published on: September 13, 2019

Methods for Characterizing the Co-development of Biofilm and Habitat Heterogeneity

Methods for Characterizing the Co-development of Biofilm and Habitat Heterogeneity

Published on: March 11, 2015

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 16, 2025

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Divergence of Root Microbiota in Different Habitats based on Weighted Correlation Networks

Published on: September 25, 2021

Fluorescently Labeled Bacteria as a Tracer to Reveal Novel Pathways of Organic Carbon Flow in Aquatic Ecosystems

Fluorescently Labeled Bacteria as a Tracer to Reveal Novel Pathways of Organic Carbon Flow in Aquatic Ecosystems

Published on: September 13, 2019

Methods for Characterizing the Co-development of Biofilm and Habitat Heterogeneity

Methods for Characterizing the Co-development of Biofilm and Habitat Heterogeneity

Published on: March 11, 2015

Area of Science:

Ecology
Network Theory
Ecological Interactions

Background:

Ecological networks are crucial for understanding community stability and predicting extinction risks.
Traditional research focused on matter/energy flow (e.g., feeding, pollination).
Species interactions also involve information exchange influencing behavior and movement.

Purpose of the Study:

To propose the integration of information exchange into ecological network analysis.
To introduce the concept of 'information networks of nature'.
To analyze how information flow affects community structure and dynamics.

Main Methods:

Developing multilayer network models integrating information and matter/energy flow.
Classifying information links based on sender-receiver relationships within food web motifs.
Analyzing network properties like pathway length and modularity.

Main Results:

Information exchange forms a crucial, often neglected, aspect of community organization.
Integration reveals novel classifications of information links.
Synthesizing information and matter flow in multilayer networks leads to denser species aggregation and shorter pathways.
Increased interconnectedness raises the risk of perturbation spread.

Conclusions:

Understanding information networks is vital for predicting community dynamics under global change.
The interconnectedness driven by information exchange can destabilize ecological communities.
Future research should incorporate information flow into ecological network assessments.