BiMat: a MATLAB package to facilitate the analysis of bipartite networks. Issue 1 (13th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Flores, Cesar O.; Poisot, Timothée; Valverde, Sergi; Weitz, Joshua S.
• Is Part Of: Methods in ecology and evolution. Volume 7:Issue 1(2016:Jan.)
• Page Start: 127
• Page End: 132
• Publication Date: 2015-09-13
• Subjects: community ecology -- complex networks -- ecological networks -- host‐parasite interactions -- microbial ecology; Ecology -- Periodicals; Evolution -- Periodicals; 577
• DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.12458
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2041-210X

Abstract

Summary: Bipartite networks are ubiquitous in community ecology, including examples of facilitative interactions, such as plant‐pollinator networks, and antagonistic interactions, such as virus–host infection networks. Statistical network analysis is increasingly used to identify emergent, nonrandom patterns of interaction and the effect of interaction patterns on ecological and evolutionary dynamics. Two recurring patterns are that of modularity and nestedness. Modularity is a feature of networks in which there are densely interacting subgroups. Nestedness is a feature of networks in which the interactions form ordered subsets. Here we describeBiMat, an open‐sourceMATLAB package for the study of the structure of bipartite ecological networks. Unlike alternative tools, BiMat enables both multiscale analysis of the structure of a bipartite ecological network – spanning global (i.e. entire network) to local (i.e. module‐level) scales – and meta‐analyses of many bipartite networks simultaneously. In common with other tools, BiMat calculates the degree to which a bipartite network is modular and/or nested, the statistical significance of these patterns, and enables visualization of latent structures in the network. BiMat is available as an open‐sourceMATLAB package, with a quick‐start guide and worked examples at:http://bimat.github.io/ .