| Summary: | Investigating the structure of ecological networks can help unravel the mechanisms promoting and maintaining biodiversity. Recently, Strona and Veech (10.1111/2041-210X.12395) introduced a new metric (Ɲ ̅, pronounced 'nos'), that allows assessment of structural patterns in networks ranging from complete node segregation to perfect nestedness, and that also provides a visual and quantitative assessment of the degree of network modularity. The Ɲ ̅ metric permits testing of a wide range of hypotheses regarding the tendency for species to share interacting partners by taking into account ecologically plausible species interactions based on constraints such as trophic levels and habitat preference. Here we introduce NOS, a software suite (including a web interface freely accessible at http://nos.alwaysdata.net, an executable program, and Python and R packages) that makes it possible to exploit the full potential of this method. Besides computing node overlap and segregation (Ɲ ̅), the software provides different functions to automatically identify a set of possible resource-consumer interactions in food webs based on trophic levels. As an example of application, we analyzed two well-resolved high-latitude marine food webs, showing that an explicit a priori consideration of trophic levels is fundamental for a proper assessment of food web structure. User manual for static NOS software The manual provides detailed instructions to use the Python NOS package, and the Windows executable program. static_NOS_user_manual.pdf NOS python package The file includes an implementation of NOS in Python programming language. Detailed instructions about how to use the package are provided in the NOS user manual. The Executable version of NOS for Windows available for download at http://nos.alwaysdata.net, and a NOS R package is available for download from CRAN https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=nos nos.py Marine Arctic food-web Sample food web for the NOS software suite. Data from: Kortsch, S. et al. 2015. Climate change alters the ...
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