Who dominates whom in the ecosystem? Energy flow bottlenecks and cascading extinctions ☆

摘要: In this paper, we investigate the problem of secondary extinction in food webs through use dominator trees, network topological structures that reduce to linear pathways are essential for energy delivery. Each species along these chains is responsible passing taxa follow it, and, as such, it indispensable their survival; because said dominate them. The higher number a node dominates, greater impact resulting from its removal. By computing trees 13 well-studied obtained each them nodes dominated by single and species. We illustrate procedure Grassland Ecosystem showing potential method identifying play major role delivery likely cause greatest damage if removed. Finally, means two indices measure error attack sensitivity, confirm previous hypothesis very robust random loss but fragile selective hubs.