Journal Article

The scaling of seed‐dispersal specialization in interaction networks across levels of organization

Dáttilo, Wesley, Villalobos, Fabricio, Moulatlet, Gabriel M., Luna, Pedro

2025

Overview

Natural ecosystems are characterized by a specialization pattern where few species are common while many others are rare. In ecological networks involving biotic interactions, specialization operates as a continuum at individual, species, and community levels. Theory predicts that ecological and evolutionary factors can primarily explain specialization. However, we still do not understand how specialization scales from individuals to the community. This question has been addressed by the emerging research program on the macroecology of biotic interactions, which focuses on ecological networks and macroecological theory to investigate biotic interaction patterns along environmental and geographical gradients. Based on the ecological and evolutionary traits of interacting species, the study of ecological networks traditionally focused on the characterization of whole community networks or on particular species as independent ecological units. Instead, the macroecological perspective requires a shift towards assessing network variation across ecological gradients while also accounting for different temporal (hours, days, and years) and spatial (local, regional, and global) scales and levels of network organization (individual‐based, species‐based, and meta‐networks). Despite the feasibility of scaling data, the variation across individuals, species, and communities in relation to network organizational level and geographic and environmental gradients remains unknown. Understanding the mechanisms driving species roles across different network levels is crucial for addressing knowledge gaps, which in turn requires synthesizing and clarifying the available information on these concepts. Thus, in this study, we aim to examine the factors shaping seed‐dispersal specialization in ecological networks and to review recent advances, outcomes, and future directions in the field of macroecology of biotic interactions related to specialization. By unraveling the factors and mechanisms posed to explain the role of individuals and species across ecological network levels, we shed light on the processes underlying the assembling of natural communities and offer insights into specialization gradients.