An Introduction to Complex Networks

Mutualisms can involve dozens, even hundreds, of species and this complexity has precluded a serious community-wide approach to plant–animal interactions. The most straightforward way to describe such an interacting community is with a network of interactions. In this approach, species are represented as nodes of two types: plants and animals. This chapter provides the tools and concepts for characterizing mutualistic networks and placing them into a broad context. This serves as a background with which to understand the structure of mutualistic networks. The discussions cover a network approach to complex systems, measures of network structure, models of network buildup, and ecological networks.