Web page ranking algorithm detects critical species in ecosystems
Friday, September 4, 2009 - 08:07
in Mathematics & Economics
Google's algorithm for ranking web-pages can be used to determine which species are critical for sustaining ecosystems. Drs. Stefano Allesina and Mercedes Pascual find that "PageRank" can be applied to the study of food webs, the complex networks describing who eats whom in an ecosystem.