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The History of Ecological Networks

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Ecological Networks in the Tropics

Abstract

The complex web of inter-relationships observed in nature that confronted early natural historians on their voyages to the tropics, inspired not only the theory of evolution by natural selection but also the development of ecology as a scientific discipline and set the foundation for the study of ecological networks. Modern network analyses owe much to these early observations of species interactions but also to pioneering advances in the fields of mathematics and social sciences. In this chapter, we review the history of ecological network studies, documenting their background in the fields of natural history, mathematics and social sciences, along with the most influential players and the ideas that they introduced. We continue the story up to the present day, documenting developments within ecology including food web models and mutualistic networks, and emerging concepts such as individual-based, trait-based and multi-layer networks. Following generations of detailed observations and theoretical development, modern network ecologists now have both the data and the analytical techniques to advance our understanding of nature’s interdependencies, particularly in the diverse tropical environments that so captivated early naturalists.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for internal funding from Anglia Ruskin University to JEH and thank M.A.R. Mello for valuable comments on a previous version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, CB1 1PT, UK

    Thomas C. Ings & Joseph E. Hawes

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  1. Thomas C. Ings
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  2. Joseph E. Hawes
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Correspondence to Thomas C. Ings .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Red de Ecoetologia, Instituto de Ecologia AC, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Wesley Dáttilo

  2. Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico

    Victor Rico-Gray

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Ings, T.C., Hawes, J.E. (2018). The History of Ecological Networks. In: Dáttilo, W., Rico-Gray, V. (eds) Ecological Networks in the Tropics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68228-0_2

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