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Nature 458, 979-980 (23 April 2009) | doi:10.1038/458979a; Published online 22 April 2009
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Assistant or Associate Professor of Neurobiology
- Medical College of Georgia
- Augusta, GA United States
Postdoctoral Positions
- Meharry Medical College
- Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Complex systems: Cooperative network dynamics
Abstract
Nested, or hierarchically arranged, mutualisms allow ecosystems to support more species than they otherwise would. But in this and other contexts, the growth of such networks could carry a heavy price.
On page 1018 of this issue, Bascompte and colleagues (Bastolla et al.)1 describe how they have followed up earlier studies2 of the mutualistic networks of plants and their animal pollinators. This new investigation is an intriguing enquiry into whether the particular topology of cooperative interactions accommodates greater biodiversity (network size), and it has potential applications beyond ecology to the dynamics of social and financial systems.
- George Sugihara and Hao Ye are at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, California 92093-0202, USA.
Email: gsugihara@ucsd.edu
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