Structure, dynamics, and distribution of mutualistic networks

The mutualistic interactions between plants and the animals that pollinate them or disperse their seeds form complex networks involving hundreds of species. These coevolutionary networks are highly heterogeneous, nested, and built upon weak and asymmetric links among species. In the architecture of biodiversity pylogenetically-similar species tend to play similar roles. Such architectural properties maximize the number of coexisting species, while favors extinction events to trigger non-random coextinction cascades that rapidly decrease taxonomic diversity. I will conclude by exploring how the architecture of mutualistic assemblages is distributed across the landscape.