Urban densification and vegetation composition reshape ecological networks across trophic layers
Abstract
Urban densification reshapes biodiversity, yet its effects on ecological networks across trophic levels remain unclear. Using a metaweb approach, we reconstructed bipartite, multitrophic, and combined food webs across 60 urban green spaces along gradients of urban densification and vegetation complexity. Densification reduced taxonomic and interaction richness, promoted interaction generalization, and homogenized networks. Its effects depended on network type, altering connectance, nestedness, and modularity differently in bipartite and multitrophic networks while increasing dependencies among trophic layers, ultimately reducing the robustness of combined food webs. Higher plant richness partly mitigated these effects by promoting interaction diversity, trophic specialization, and robustness, although responses varied across network types. Non-native plants also induced network-specific shifts, favoring highly connected consumers in bipartite networks while leaving overall structure largely unchanged. Our results show that urban density and vegetation composition jointly restructure ecological networks in a network-type-dependent manner, and that single-guild perspectives may misrepresent ecosystem-level responses in cities.
Related
- Root exudates enhance the ecological fitness of a non-native PGPR and reshape rhizosphere microbiome assembly
- Land use and climate warming interact to reshape global avian biodiversity through ecological filtering and homogenisation
- NK cells engineered with a chimeric antigen receptor delay HIV rebound and reshape HIV reservoir composition
- Riparian Tugai Forest Ecosystems of Azerbaijan: Vegetation Structure, Classification and Ecological Characteristics
- The Ecological Price of Segregation: Socioeconomic Stratification Structures Urban Bird and Vegetation Distribution
BibTeX
@misc{perrelet2026urban,
title = {{Urban densification and vegetation composition reshape ecological networks across trophic layers}},
author = {Kilian Perrelet and Sebastian Ruile and Merin Reji Chacko and Joan Casanelles-Abella and Bertrand Fournier and Marco Moretti},
howpublished = {EcoEvoRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.32942/x24q2v},
url = {https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14931/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Urban densification and vegetation composition reshape ecological networks across trophic layers
AU - Kilian Perrelet
AU - Sebastian Ruile
AU - Merin Reji Chacko
AU - Joan Casanelles-Abella
AU - Bertrand Fournier
AU - Marco Moretti
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/11
PB - EcoEvoRxiv
DO - 10.32942/x24q2v
UR - https://ecoevorxiv.org/repository/view/14931/
AB - Urban densification reshapes biodiversity, yet its effects on ecological networks across trophic levels remain unclear. Using a metaweb approach, we reconstructed bipartite, multitrophic, and combined food webs across 60 urban green spaces along gradients of urban densification and vegetation complexity. Densification reduced taxonomic and interaction richness, promoted interaction generalization, and homogenized networks. Its effects depended on network type, altering connectance, nestedness, and modularity differently in bipartite and multitrophic networks while increasing dependencies among trophic layers, ultimately reducing the robustness of combined food webs. Higher plant richness partly mitigated these effects by promoting interaction diversity, trophic specialization, and robustness, although responses varied across network types. Non-native plants also induced network-specific shifts, favoring highly connected consumers in bipartite networks while leaving overall structure largely unchanged. Our results show that urban density and vegetation composition jointly restructure ecological networks in a network-type-dependent manner, and that single-guild perspectives may misrepresent ecosystem-level responses in cities.
ER -