Tristan Guttridge Bimini Biological Field Station Foundation, South Bimini, Bahamas

David M.P. Jacoby Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, London, United Kingdom

18.1 INTRODUCTION

In recent decades, network analyses have become ubiquitous in ecology, facilitating our understanding of linkages between paired entities, whether it be genes, proteins, individuals, species, or habitats (Blüthgen et al., 2008; Croft et

al., 2008; Krause et al., 2007; Proulx et al., 2005; Wey et al., 2008). Network theory (also known as graph theory) originates from the mathematical and social sciences but has developed concurrently across many disciplines, including computational science, physics, management, genetics, and epidemiology (Newman, 2010), to name but a few.