Abstract Quantifying soil structural and ecological heterogeneity is crucial for understanding their interactions and their relationships to the resilience and health of the wider ecosystem. However, a clear understanding of how structural heterogeneity affects soil biodiversity is still emerging. Previous work has primarily used expensive, often laboratory-based methods to quantify soil pore network structure, and typically separated study of structural and biological dimensions. Here, we test whether standard network metrics can be used to quantify structural heterogeneity in soil pore networks, and how this network structure, along with characteristics of the consumer and resource populations, affects the heterogeneity of a population of consumers. Specifically, we extract simplified soil pore networks from digital photographs of soil profiles and apply established metrics from network science and transport geography to quantify and compare the networks. The networks are also used as the medium for an agent-based model of generalised consumers, to analyse the effects of consumer and resource parameterisations and network structure. Combining network analysis and simulation modelling in this way can provide insights on the structure, function, and diversity possible in the soil, as well as avenues for exploring the impact of future structural or environmental changes.

中文翻译：

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测量土壤网络的异质性：一种基于网络分析和模拟的方法

摘要 量化土壤结构和生态异质性对于理解它们的相互作用及其与更广泛生态系统的恢复力和健康的关系至关重要。然而，对结构异质性如何影响土壤生物多样性的清晰认识仍在出现。以前的工作主要使用昂贵的、通常基于实验室的方法来量化土壤孔隙网络结构，并且通常将结构和生物维度的研究分开。在这里，我们测试标准网络指标是否可用于量化土壤孔隙网络中的结构异质性，以及这种网络结构以及消费者和资源群体的特征如何影响消费者群体的异质性。具体来说，我们从土壤剖面的数字照片中提取简化的土壤孔隙网络，并应用来自网络科学和交通地理学的既定指标来量化和比较网络。网络还用作基于代理的广义消费者模型的媒介，以分析消费者和资源参数化以及网络结构的影响。以这种方式将网络分析和模拟建模相结合，可以深入了解土壤中可能存在的结构、功能和多样性，以及探索未来结构或环境变化影响的途径。分析消费者和资源参数化和网络结构的影响。以这种方式将网络分析和模拟建模相结合，可以深入了解土壤中可能存在的结构、功能和多样性，以及探索未来结构或环境变化影响的途径。分析消费者和资源参数化和网络结构的影响。以这种方式将网络分析和模拟建模相结合，可以深入了解土壤中可能存在的结构、功能和多样性，以及探索未来结构或环境变化影响的途径。