Species Co-occurrence Data for Ecological Interaction Analysis

A conceptual paper argues significant spatial associations between species are a poor proxy for ecological interactions. Authored by F. Guillaume Blanchet of Université de Sherbrooke, it critically assesses the use of co-occurrence data in community assembly theories dating from Forbes (1907) and Diamond (1975). The work discusses appropriate interpretations of co-occurrence and potential avenues to extract information from such observational data.

Use Cases

• Critically evaluating the use of co-occurrence patterns as a proxy for ecological interactions.
• Developing null models for community assembly based on probability and sampling theories.
• Informing the interpretation of joint species distribution model outputs.
• Designing studies to better extract ecological signals from observational co-occurrence data.

Strengths

• Builds on a long theoretical lineage dating from 1907 and 1975.
• Presents arguments grounded in probability, sampling, food web, and coexistence theories.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Université de Sherbrooke

Collection Method

Theoretical and critical review paper.