Extended Data Fig. 5: Mean value of b, variance of b, slope of the b ~ S relationship and the across-networks slope β in samples of mutualistic (blue) and trophic (red) networks.

The vertical lines correspond to the observed values for the full dataset (249 mutualistic and 186 trophic networks) while the histograms illustrate the distribution of these values in 100 subsets of 2×100 networks randomly sampled from the complete dataset and this, for each interaction type. a, The mean value of b is significantly lower in mutualistic networks than in trophic ones (Welch t-test, see Extended Data Figure 4a). b, The variance of b is significantly lower in mutualistic networks than in trophic ones (Levene test, see Extended Data Figure 4b). c, The rate at which b decreases when S increases (slope of the b ~ S relationship) is significantly higher (less negative) in mutualistic networks than in trophic ones (Welch t-test, see Extended Data Figure 4d). d, The slope β of the across-network log-log regression does not significantly differ between the mutualistic and the trophic networks (Welch t-test, see Extended Data Figure 4e).