Scaling from individuals to networks beyond food webs and communities

Food webs, the set of predator-prey interactions in an ecosystem, are a prototypical complex system. Much research to date has concentrated on predicting and identifying the key structural features which describe them. More recently, the tools of network theory have been utilized to provide further understanding. However, it is not always clear how directly network metrics or measures translate to additional ecological insights. I will discuss recent examples where these insights are and are not readily apparent, in addition to whether or not one can infer species' or individual's characteristics from global food web properties.