The quest for understanding how species interactions modulate diversity has progressed by theoretical and empirical advances following niche and network theories. Yet, niche studies have been limited to describe coexistence within tropic levels despite incorporating information about multi-trophic interactions. Network approaches could address this limitation, but they have ignored the structure of species interactions within trophic levels. Here we call for the integration of niche and network theories to reach new frontiers of knowledge exploring how interactions within and across trophic levels promote species coexistence. This integration is possible due to the strong parallelisms in the historical development, ecological concepts, and associated mathematical tools of both theories. We provide a guideline to integrate this framework with observational and experimental studies.

遵循利基和网络理论，通过理论和经验的进步，寻求了解物种之间的相互作用如何调节多样性的要求。然而，尽管纳入了有关多营养相互作用的信息，但利基研究仅限于描述热带水平内的共存。网络方法可以解决这一局限性，但他们忽略了营养级别内物种相互作用的结构。在这里，我们呼吁整合利基和网络理论，以达到新的知识前沿，探索营养级之间和营养级之间的相互作用如何促进物种共存。由于历史发展，生态学概念以及这两种理论的相关数学工具之间的强并行性，因此可以实现这种集成。