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1. Societies with fission–fusion dynamics as complex adaptive systems: the importance of scale

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0175  

   Madsen, Anastasia; de_Silva, Shermin (July 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Valdovinos, Fernanda; Bodini, Antonio; Jordán, Ferenc (Ed.)

   In this article, we argue that social systems with fission–fusion (FF) dynamics are best characterized within a complex adaptive systems (CAS) framework. We discuss how different endogenous and exogenous factors drive scale-dependent network properties across temporal, spatial and social domains. Importantly, this view treats the dynamics themselves as objects of study, rather than variously defined notions of static ‘social groups’ that have hitherto dominated thinking in behavioural ecology. CAS approaches allow us to interrogate FF dynamics in taxa that do not conform to more traditional conceptualizations of sociality and encourage us to pose new types of questions regarding the sources of stability and change in social systems, distinguishing regular variations from those that would lead to system-level reorganization. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Connected interactions: enriching food web research by spatial and social interactions’. 

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2. A highly resolved network reveals the role of terrestrial herbivory in structuring aboveground food webs

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0180  

   Hale, Kayla_R S; Curlis, John David; Auteri, Giorgia G; Bishop, Sasha; French, Rowan_L K; Jones, Lance E; Mills, Kirby L; Scholtens, Brian G; Simons, Meagan; Thompson, Cody; et al (September 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Comparative studies suggest remarkable similarities among food webs across habitats, including systematic changes in their structure with diversity and complexity (scale-dependence). However, historic aboveground terrestrial food webs (ATFWs) have coarsely grouped plants and insects such that these webs are generally small, and herbivory is disproportionately under-represented compared to vertebrate predator–prey interactions. Furthermore, terrestrial herbivory is thought to be structured by unique processes compared to size-structured feeding in other systems. Here, we present the richest ATFW to date, including approximately 580 000 feeding links among approximately 3800 taxonomic species, sourced from approximately 27 000 expert-vetted interaction records annotated as feeding upon one of six different resource types: leaves, flowers, seeds, wood, prey and carrion. By comparison to historical ATFWs and null ecological hypotheses, we show that our temperate forest web displays a potentially unique structure characterized by two properties: (i) a large fraction of carnivory interactions dominated by a small number of hyper-generalist, opportunistic bird and bat predators; and (ii) a smaller fraction of herbivory interactions dominated by a hyper-rich community of insects with variably sized but highly specific diets. We attribute our findings to the large-scale, even resolution of vertebrate, insect and plant guilds in our food web. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Connected interactions: enriching food web research by spatial and social interactions’. 

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3. Assessing impacts of bycatch policies and fishers’ heterogeneous information on food webs and fishery sustainability

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0181  

   Kushal, Appilineni; Springborn, Michael R; Valdovinos, Fernanda S (September 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) has emerged as a promising framework for understanding and managing the long-term interactions between fisheries and the larger marine ecosystems in which they are nested. However, successful implementation of EBFM has been elusive because we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the network of interacting species in marine ecosystems (the food web) and the dynamic relationship between the food web and the humans who harvest those ecosystems. Here, we advance such understanding by developing a network framework that integrates the complexity of food webs with the economic dynamics of different management policies. Specifically, we generate hundreds of different food web models with 20–30 species, each harvested by five different fishers extracting the biomass of a target and a bycatch species, subject to two different management scenarios and exhibiting different information in terms of avoiding bycatch when harvesting the target species. We assess the different ecological and economic consequences of these policy alternatives as species extinctions and profit from sustaining the fishery. We present the results of different policies relative to a benchmark open access scenario where there are no management policies in place. The framework of our network model would allow policymakers to evaluate different management approaches without compromising on the ecological complexities of a fishery. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Connected interactions: enriching food web research by spatial and social interactions’. 

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4. Interactions between neural representations of the social and spatial environment

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0522  

   Thompson, James C; Parkinson, Carolyn (October 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   Even in our highly interconnected modern world, geographic factors play an important role in human social connections. Similarly, social relationships influence how and where we travel, and how we think about our spatial world. Here, we review the growing body of neuroscience research that is revealing multiple interactions between social and spatial processes in both humans and non-human animals. We review research on the cognitive and neural representation of spatial and social information, and highlight recent findings suggesting that underlying mechanisms might be common to both. We discuss how spatial factors can influence social behaviour, and how social concepts modify representations of space. In so doing, this review elucidates not only how neural representations of social and spatial information interact but also similarities in how the brain represents and operates on analogous information about its social and spatial surroundings. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The spatial–social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration’. 

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5. Expanding theory, methodology and empirical systems at the spatial–social interface

   https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0534  

   Albery, Gregory F; Webber, Quinn_M R; Farine, Damien; Picardi, Simona; Vander_Wal, Eric; Manlove, Kezia R (October 2024, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)

   All animals exhibit some combination of spatial and social behaviours. A diversity of interactions occurs between such behaviours, producing emergent phenomena atthe spatial–social interface. Untangling and interrogating these complex, intertwined processes can be vital for identifying the mechanisms, causes and consequences of behavioural variation in animal ecology. Nevertheless, the integrated study of the interactions between spatial and social phenotypes and environments (at the spatial–social interface) is in its relative infancy. In this theme issue, we present a collection of papers chosen to expand the spatial–social interface along several theoretical, methodological and empirical dimensions. They detail new perspectives, methods, study systems and more, as well as offering roadmaps for applied outputs and detailing exciting new directions for the field to move in the future. In this Introduction, we outline the contents of these papers, placing them in the context of what comes before, and we synthesize a number of takeaways and future directions for the spatial–social interface. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The spatial–social interface: a theoretical and empirical integration’. 

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