Extended Data Fig. 4: Results of statistical tests on b, S and β.
a, p-values of Welch t-tests allowing the comparison of the mean value of S (white) and b (grey) between η mutualistic (M) and η trophic (T) networks (η being the number of networks randomly drawn from the 249 mutualistic and the 186 trophic networks of the dataset). We performed 100 tests per sampling size η. While \(\bar{\mathbf{S}}\) does not significantly differ between the two interaction types, \(\overline {{\mathbf{b}}_{\mathrm{M}}} < \overline {{\mathbf{b}}_{\mathrm{T}}}\) when η > 80. b, p-values of Levene tests allowing the comparison of the variance of S and b between the two interaction types. While var(S) does not significantly differ, var(bM) < var(bT) for all tests. c, p-values of two-sample Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests allowing the comparison of the distribution of b and S between the two interaction types. The full distribution of b can be compared between the two interaction types if their distribution of S is similar enough. This is fulfilled when η ≤ 140: while the interaction types have the same distribution of S, their distribution of b differs when \(\eta \in [60,140]\). d, p-values of Welch t-tests allowing the comparison of the slope of the b ~ S relationship in η mutualistic and η trophic networks obtained through linear regression. The tests were performed on 100 slopes for each sample size η: slopeM > slopeT when η > 20. e, p-values of Welch t-tests allowing the comparison of the slope β of the L ~ S relationship in η mutualistic and η trophic networks obtained through log-log regressions. The tests were performed on the 100 slopes computed for each sample size η: βM < βT when η > 100. On all panels, the dotted horizontal line indicates the p-value = 0.001 threshold. The centre line of the box-plot elements corresponds to the median, the box limits to the upper and lower quartiles, the whiskers to 1.5x interquartile range and the diamonds to the outliers.
