Analyzing Ecological Networks
FRB-CESAB & ANR ECONET course
Welcome
The course takes will take place the week of 31 March - 4 April 2025.
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The objective of this five-day course, co-organized by the FRB-CESAB and the ANR ECONET, is to train young researchers in analyzing ecological network data. The course covers a general introduction to networks, classical metrics (including modularity, nesteness, clustering), null models, generative models (including SBM), multilayer networks, as well as an overview of newer techniques (such as embedding). Each topic is explored through lectures followed by practicals.
Program
Classes will run from 9am to 5:30pm every day except Friday, when we finish at 4pm.
Monday - Introduction
9:30: Introduction to networks
10:30: Coffee break
11:00: What kind of networks in ecology ?
11:30: How are ecological network data collected ?
12:00: Lunch break
13:30: “Speed dating”
14:30:
igraph15:30: Coffee break
16:00: What determines interactions in ecological networks?
17:30: End of the working day
Tuesday - Network metrics and null models
10:30: Coffee break
11:00: Network models, null models
12:00: Lunch break
14:00: Complexity stability
15:00: The structure of ecological networks: what do we know?
16:00: Coffee break
16:30: Group projects
17:30: End of the working day
Wednesday - Generative Stochastic Models
10:30: Coffee break
11:00: Selecting the number of blocks
12:00: Lunch break
14:00: The structure of ecological networks: what do we know? (2)
15:00: Coffee break
15:30: Group projects
17:30: End of the working day
Thursday - Multilayer networks
10:30: Coffee break
11:00: Multilayer in practice
12:00: Lunch break
14:00: Group projects
17:30: End of the working day
Friday - Opening and group presentations
10:30: Coffee break
11:00: finalizing presentations
12:00: Lunch break at the CESAB
14:00: Group project presentations
16:30: End of the workshop
Prerequisites
Please follow this tutorial to install your working environment before attending the training course. Only R, RStudio Desktop, and Rtools (for Windows users) are required for this course.
You also need to create an account on GitHub.
Material
Exercises done during the training course are available at: https://github.com/econetoolbox/
All the data and extra functions needed during the course are available at: https://github.com/econetoolbox/data
The lecturers
Sophie DONNET (INRAE, MIA Paris Saclay)
Sonia KEFI (CNRS, ISEM, Montpellier)
François MASSOL (CNRS, CIIL, Lille)
Catherine MATIAS (CNRS, Sorbonne U., LPSM, Paris)
Elisa THEBAULT (CNRS, iEES, Paris)
Stéphane Robin (Sorbonne U., LPSM, Paris)
Contributions
If you see mistakes or want to suggest changes, please create an issue on the source repository.
Reuse
Text and figures are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC By 4.0, unless otherwise noted.
See also
Discover the other training courses provided by the FRB-CESAB and its partners: https://frbcesab.github.io/training-courses/