Preface

Networks are useful descriptors of ecological systems that put the emphasis on the interactions between multiple elements. They provide a conceptual framework to assess the consequences of perturbations at the community level. This may serve to assess relevant questions such as how overfishing can cause trophic cascades, or how the disruption of mutualisms may reduce the pollination service within a community. Networks are also a means to introduce heterogeneity into our previously homogeneous theories of populations, diseases, and societies. Finally, networks have allowed us to find generalities among seemingly different systems that, despite their disparate nature, may experience similar constraints on their architecture in order to be functional.