Understanding ecosystem robustness

Understanding the properties of ecosystems that make them either vulnerable or resistant to species extinctions is vital in the context of rapidly increasing habitat modification and climatic warming. New research by Sinha et al. incorporating ‘small-world’ topologies and population dynamics into ecosystem network models provides new explanations for species link distributions, extinction events and the maintenance of biodiversity. Their work reveals that previously unconnected ecosystems that come into contact with each other by anthropogenic or natural means are vulnerable to large losses in species.