Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35106910›Full record

ArticleEcology letters2022

Disentangling key species interactions in diverse and heterogeneous communities: A Bayesian sparse modelling approach.

Christopher P Weiss-Lehman, Chhaya M Werner, Catherine H Bowler, Lauren M Hallett, Margaret M Mayfield, Oscar Godoy, Lina Aoyama, György Barabás, Chengjin Chu, Emma Ladouceur and 2 more

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Ecology letters, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
8.4field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. A practical guide to characterising ecological coexistence.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026
    Review
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors at 8 institutions in 6 countries.

Christopher P Weiss-LehmanBotany Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1793-235X
Chhaya M WernerBotany Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.
Catherine H BowlerSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0662-1540
Lauren M HallettBiology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0718-0257
Margaret M MayfieldSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5101-6542
Oscar GodoyDepartamento de Biología, Instituto Universitario de Investigación Marina (INMAR), Universidad de Cádiz, Puerto Real, Spain.
Lina AoyamaBiology Department, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9677-7268
György BarabásDivision of Theoretical Biology, Department of IFM, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.
Chengjin ChuDepartment of Ecology, State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol and School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0606-449X
Emma LadouceurGerman Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Leipzig-Halle-Jena, Leipzig, Germany.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4943-4358
Loralee LariosDepartment of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, California, USA.
Lauren G ShoemakerBotany Department, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4465-8432
University of Wyoming · USThe University of Queensland · AUUniversity of Oregon · USHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research · DELinköping University · SESun Yat-sen University · CNUniversidad de Cádiz · ESUniversity of California, Riverside · US

Funding

Australian Research Council DP140100574Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig 02548816Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig FZT 118European Social Fund RYC-2017- 23666Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadNSF EPSCoR EPS-2019528Vetenskapsrådet 2017-05245
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Modelling species interactions in diverse communities traditionally requires a prohibitively large number of species-interaction coefficients, especially when considering environmental dependence of parameters. We implemented Bayesian variable selection via sparsity-inducing priors on non-linear species abundance models to determine which species interactions should be retained and which can be represented as an average heterospecific interaction term, reducing the number of model parameters. We evaluated model performance using simulated communities, computing out-of-sample predictive accuracy and parameter recovery across different input sample sizes. We applied our method to a diverse empirical community, allowing us to disentangle the direct role of environmental gradients on species' intrinsic growth rates from indirect effects via competitive interactions. We also identified a few neighbouring species from the diverse community that had non-generic interactions with our focal species. This sparse modelling approach facilitates exploration of species interactions in diverse communities while maintaining a manageable number of parameters.

Indexed as

Bayes TheoremEcologycoexistenceenvironmental gradientspairwise interactionsparameter shrinkageplant fecundityspecies diversity

Identifiers

PMID35106910
PMCPMC9543015
OpenAlexW4210692084

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.