For many decades, ecologists have sought to understand the extent to which species losses lead to secondary extinctions—that is, the additional loss of species that occurs when resources or key interactions are lost (i.e. robustness). In particular, ecologists aim to identify generalisable rules that explain which types of food webs are more or less robust to secondary extinctions. Food web structure, or the patterns formed by species and their interactions, has been extensively studied as a potential factor that influences robustness to species loss. We systematically reviewed 28 studies to identify the relationships between food web structure and robustness to species loss and how the conclusions depend on methodological differences. Contrary to popular belief and theory, we found relatively consistent, positive relationships between connectance and robustness, among other generalities. Yet, we also found that conflicting conclusions about structure‐robustness relationships can be, in part, attributed to differences in the type of data that studies use, particularly studies that use empirical data versus those generated from theoretical models. This review points towards a need to standardise methodology to answer the open question of whether robustness and its relationship with food web structure and to provide applicable insights for managing complex systems.

中文翻译：

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综合食物网结构和稳健性之间的关系


几十年来，生态学家一直在试图了解物种丧失在多大程度上导致二次灭绝，即当资源或关键相互作用丧失（即稳健性）时发生的物种额外损失。特别是，生态学家旨在确定可推广的规则，以解释哪些类型的食物网或多或少对二次灭绝具有强健性。食物网结构或物种及其相互作用形成的模式已被广泛研究为影响物种丧失稳健性的潜在因素。我们系统地回顾了 28 项研究，以确定食物网结构与物种损失稳健性之间的关系，以及结论如何取决于方法学差异。与流行的信念和理论相反，我们发现连结性和稳健性之间以及其他普遍性之间存在相对一致、积极的关系。然而，我们还发现，关于结构-稳健性关系的相互矛盾的结论可能部分归因于研究使用的数据类型的差异，特别是使用经验数据的研究与从理论模型生成的数据的研究。本综述指出需要标准化方法，以回答稳健性是否及其与食物网结构的关系这一悬而未决的问题，并为管理复杂系统提供适用的见解。