Publications

Preprints

Bramon Mora, B. & Cirtwill, A.R., & Stouffer, D.B. (2018) pymfinder: a tool for the motif analysis of binary and quantitative complex networks. bioRxiv
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/364703

This preprint introduces pymfinder, a python package for calculating the frequencies of motifs (unique patterns of interactions among small groups of species) in complex networks. Includes functions to describe network structure overall as well as functions to define the roles of species or links in terms of their participation in different motifs.

2024

Timberlake, Thomas; Cirtwill, Alyssa; Sapkota, Sujan; Bhusal, Daya; Devkota, Kedar; Karki, Rashmina; Joshi, Deepak; Saville, Naomi; Kortsch, Susanne; Baral, Sushil; Roslin, Tomas & Memmott, Jane. (2024) Agricultural specialisation increases the vulnerability of pollination services for smallholder farmers. Journal of Applied Ecology: Online Early View. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.14732 Open access.

Redr, D., Cirtwill, A.R., Kaartinen, R,. Grunsky, A., Hogg, I., McLennan, D., Rasmussen, C., Schmidt, N.M., Tiusanen, M., Wagner, J., Wirta, H., & Roslin, T. Increasing variability in resource supply over time shakes up plant-pollinator interactions. Ecological Monographs: Online Early View, e1637. doi: 10.1002/ecm.1637

Cherif, M., Brose, U., Hirt, M.R., Ryser, R., Silve, V., Albert, G., Arnott, R., Berti, E., Cirtwill, A.R., Dyer, A., Gauzens, B., Gupta, A., Ho, H.C., Portalier, S.M.J., Wain, D., & Wootton, K. (2024) The environment to the rescue: can physics help predict predator-prey interactions? Biological Reviews: 99(6), 1927-1947. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13105 Open access.

Cirtwill, A.R., Åkesson, A., Wootton, K.L., & Eklöf, A. (2024) Species motif participation provides unique information about species risk of extinction. Journal of Animal Ecology : 93(6), 731-742.
doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.14081 Open access.

Kortsch, S., Timberlake, T.P., Cirtwill, A.R., Sapotka, S., Rokaya, M., Devkota, K., Roslin, T., Memmott, J., & Saville, N.M. (2024) Decline of honeybees and its consequences for beekeepers and crop pollination in western Nepal. Insects : 15(4), 281. Special Issue: Healthy and Sustainable Beekeeping
doi: 10.3390/insects15040281 Open access.

Editor's Choice
Cirtwill, A.R., Wirta, H., Kaartinen, R., Ballantyne, G., Stone, G., Cunnold, H., Tiusanen, M., & Roslin, T. (2024) Flower-visitor and pollen-load data provide complementary insight into species and individual network roles. Oikos : 2024(4), e10301.
doi: 10.1111/oik.10301 Open access.

2023

Schmidt, N.M., Kankaanpää, T., Tiusanen, M., Reneerkens, J., Versluijs, T.S.L, Hansen, L.H., Hansen, J., Gerlich, H.S., Høye, T.T., Cirtwill, A.R., Zhemchuzhnikov, M.K., Peña-Aguilera, P. & Roslin, R. (2023) Little directional change in the timing of Arctic spring phenology over the past twenty-five years. Current Biology: 33(15), 3244-3249.
doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.06.038 Open access

Villa Galaviz*, E., Cirtwill*, A.R., Gibson, R., Timberlake, T., Roslin, T., & Memmott, J. (2023) What makes a good pollinator? Abundant and specialised insects with long flight periods transport the most strawberry pollen. Ecological Solutions and Evidence: 4(3), e12253
doi: 10.1002/2688-8319.12253 Open access

* Joint first authors.

Kortsch, S., Saravia, L., Cirtwill, A.R., Timberlake, T., Memmott, J., Kendall, L., Roslin, T., & Strona, G. (2023) Landscape composition and pollinator traits interact to influence pollination success in an individual-based model Functional Ecology: 37(7), 2056-2071
doi: 10.1111/1365-2435.14353 Open access

Cirtwill, A.R., Kaartinen, K., Rasmussen, C., Redr, D., Wirta, H., Olesen, J.M., Tiusanen, M., Ballantyne, G., Cunnold, H., Stone, G.M., Schmidt, N.M., & Roslin, T. (2023) Stable pollination service in a generalist High Arctic community despite the warming climate. Ecological Monographs: 93(1), e1551
doi: 10.1002/ecm.1551 Open access

2022

Hambäck, P., Cirtwill, A.R., Grudzinska-Sterno M., Hoffmann, A., Langbak, M. & Åhlén, D. (2022) Species composition of shoreline wolf spider communities vary with salinity, but their diets vary with wrack inflow. Ecology and Evolution: 12(12), e9701
doi: 10.1002/ece3.9701 Open access

Cirtwill, A.R. & Wootton, K.L. (2022) Stable motifs delay species loss in simulated food webs Oikos: 2022(11), e09436
doi: 10.1111/oik.09436 Open access

Liénart, C., Cirtwill, A.R., Hedgespeth, M., & Bradshaw, C. (2022) A sprinkling of gold dust: Pine pollen as a carbon source in Baltic Sea coastal food webs Limnology and Oceanography: 67(1), 53-65
doi: 10.1002/lno.11974 Open access

Timberlake, T.P., Cirtwill, A.R., Baral, S.C., Bhusal, Daya R., Devkota, K., Harris-Fry, H.A., Kortsch, S., Myers, S.S., Roslin, T., Saville, N.M., Smith, M.R., Strona, G., & Memmott, J. (2022) A network approach for managing ecosystem services and improving food and nutrition security on smallholder farms People and Nature: 4(2), 563-575
doi: 10.1002/pan3.10295 Open access

2021

McLeod, A., Leroux, S.J., Gravel, D., Chu, C., Cirtwill, A.R., Fortin, M.J., Galiana, N., Poisot, T., & Wood, S. (2021) Sampling and asymptotic network properties of spatial multi-trophic networks, Oikos: 130(12), 2250-2259
doi: 10.1111/oik.08650 Open access

Hambäck, P., Cirtwill, A.R., Garcia, D., Grudzinska-Sterno M., Miñarro, M., Yang, X., & Samnegård, U. (2021) More intraguild prey than pest species in arachnid diets may compromise biological control in apple orchards Basic and Applied Ecology: 57, 1-13
doi:10.1016/j.baae.2021.09.006 Open access

Cirtwill, A.R. & Hambäck, P. (2021) Building food networks from molecular data: Bayesian or fixed-number thresholds for including links. Basic and Applied Ecology: 50, 67-76
doi:10.1016/j.baae.2020.11.007 Open access

2020

Cirtwill, A.R. (2020) Climate change ecology: Some food webs like it hotter Nature Climate Change: 10, 186-187
doi: 10.1038/s41558-020-0706-3

Cirtwill, A.R., Dalla Riva, G.V., Baker, N.J., Ohlsson, M., Norström, I., Wohlfarth, I.M., Thia, J.A. & Stouffer, D.B. (2020). Related plants tend to share pollinators and herbivores, but strength of phylogenetic signal varies among plant families. New Phytologist: 226(3), 909-920
doi: 10.1111/nph.16420
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2019

Albouy, C., Archambault, P., Appeltans, W., Araújo, M.B., Beauchesne, D., Cazelles, K., Cirtwill, A.R., Fortin, M.J., Galiana, N., Leroux, S., Pellissier, L., Poisot, T., Stouffer, D.B., Wood, S.A., & Gravel, D. (2019) The marine fish food web is globally connected. Nature Ecology and Evolution: 3, 1153-1161
doi: 10.1038/s41559-019-0950-y
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Cirtwill, A.R., Eklöf, A., Roslin, T., Wootton, K., & Gravel, D. (2019) A quantitative framework for investigating the reliability of empirical network construction. Methods in Ecology and Evolution: 10(6), 902-911
doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.13180    
ResearchGate

Baiser, B., Gravel, D., Cirtwill, A.R., Dunne, J.A., Fahimipour, A.K., Gilarranz, L.J., Grochow, J.A., Li, D., Martinez, N.D., McGrew, A., Poisot, T., Romnuk, T.N., Stouffer, D.B., Trotta, L.B., Valdovinos, F.S., Williams, R.J., Wood, S.A., & Yeakel, J.D. (2019) Ecogeographical rules and the macroecology of food webs. Global Ecology and Biogeography: 28(9), 1204-1218
doi: 10.1111/geb.12925
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Simmons, B.I., Cirtwill, A.R., Baker, N., Dicks, L.V., Stouffer, D.B., & Sutherland, W.J. (2019) Motifs in bipartite ecological networks: uncovering indirect interactions. Oikos: 128(2), 154-170
doi: 10.1111/oik.05670    
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2018

Cirtwill, A.R., Dalla Riva, G.V., Gaiarsa, M.P., Bimler, M.D., Cagua E.F., Coux, C., & Dehling, D.M. (2018) A review of species role concepts in food webs. Food Webs: 16, e00093
doi: 10.1016/j.fooweb.2018.e00093
ResearchGate

Cirtwill, A.R. & Eklöf, A. (2018) Feeding environment and other traits shape species' roles in marine food webs. Ecology Letters: 21(6), 875-884
doi: 10.1111/ele.12955
ResearchGate

Cirtwill, A.R., Roslin, T., Rasmussen, C., Olesen, J.M., & Stouffer, D.B. (2018) Between-year changes in community composition shape species' roles in an Arctic plant-pollinator network. Oikos: 127(8), 1163-1176
doi: 10.1111/oik.05074
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2017

Cirtwill, A.R., Lagrue, C., Poulin, R., & Stouffer, D.B. (2017) Host taxonomy constrains the properties of trophic transmission routes for parasites in lake food webs. Ecology: 98(9), 2401–2412
doi: 10.1002/ecy.1927
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2016

Cirtwill, A.R., Stouffer, D.B., Poulin, R., & Lagrue, C. (2016) Are parasite diversity and abundance linked to individual diet range and feeding preferences in fish hosts? Parasitology: 143(1), 75-86
doi: 10.1017/S003118201500150X
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Poisot, T., Cirtwill, A., Gravel, D., Fortin, M.-J., & Stouffer, D.B. (2016) The structure of probabilistic networks. Methods in Ecology and Evolution: 7(3), 303-312
doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12468
Preprint

Poisot, T., Gravel, D., Leroux, S., Wood, S.A., Fortin, M.-J., Baiser, B., Cirtwill, A.R., Araujo, M.B., & Stouffer, D.B. (2016) Synthetic datasets and community tools for the rapid testing of ecological hypotheses. Ecography: 39(4), 402-408
doi: 10.1111/ecog.01941
Preprint

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2016) Knowledge of predator-prey interactions improves predictions of immigration and extinction in island biogeography. Global Ecology and Biogeography: 25(7), 900-911
doi: 10.1111/geb.12332
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Cirtwill, A. 2016. Species roles and link roles: a richer perspective on network ecology.
University of Canterbury [PhD Thesis].

In this thesis, I explored several aspects of species' and links' roles in ecological networks. All chapters have since been published.

2015

Cirtwill, A.R., Stouffer, D.B., & Romanuk, T.N. (2015) Latitudinal gradients in biotic niche breadth vary across ecosystem types. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: 282(1819), 20151589
doi: 10.1098/rspb.2015.1589
PDF Erratum

Cirtwill, A.R. & Stouffer, D.B. (2015) Concomitant predation on parasites is highly variable but constrains the ways in which parasites contribute to food web structure. Journal of Animal Ecology: 84(3), 734-744
doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12323 Open access

2014

Stouffer, D.B., Cirtwill, A.R., & Bascompte, J. (2014) How exotic plants integrate into pollination networks. Journal of Ecology: 102(6), 1442-1450
doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12310 Open access

2012

Cirtwill, A. 2012. Latitude, temperature, and productivity affect ecological network structure. Dalhousie University [Honours Thesis].

This thesis explored environmental drivers of food-web structure. A significantly revised version was later published as an article in Proc R Soc B. Please see that manuscript for more details.