Google "classified" endangered species

The algorithm that Google uses to develop the ranking of most viewed could be adapted to determine which species are key to the survival of ecosystems, the researchers say.

According to an article in the journal PLoS Computational Biology (the official publication of the International Society for Biology Information) system used to establish the "most viewed classification" could apply to the study of the food chain is ie, the complex system of who eats whom in an ecosystem.

Food chain
In nature, all species are integrated into a complex network of relationships with other species and the extinction of a single variety could lead to the disappearance of many other seemingly distant.

For example, the blue butterfly became endangered when the basis of their food, a kind of ant, began to disappear.

In this sense, identify maintenance relations between different species is a fundamental step when trying to protect them and prevent their extinction.

However, the investigation of these relationships by conventional means is very complicated since the number of possible combinations that define the relationships between different species is almost infinite and trying to check all possibilities, almost impossible.

It is at this point that the application to the ecology of the algorithm used for compiling the list of "most viewed" by Google might prove valuable.


According to experts, to fit your field of study, only had to make some changes.

"First, we had to reverse the direction in which the algorithm works. For the classification of most viewed, a page is important as other important pages that relate to it. However, in our field, a species is important if it relates to other species, "he told the BBC Allesina Stefano, Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolution of Univesidad Chicago.

To implement the algorithm, the scientists also had to find a cyclical pattern in the food chain of ecosystems.

And the key is found in what Allesina called the "pool of waste."

"When an organism dies falls into the 'pond waste." And so in a way, again incorporated into the food chain through primary producers, plants, "said the professor.

"Any kind sooner or later end up falling into the 'waste pond' and the content of this 'pool' will eventually be reintroduced into the system through the plants. This makes the food chain a circular system and therefore the application the algorithm is possible. "

Allesina and co-author of the research, Mercedes Pascual of the University of Michigan, found its way in some food chains and developed a classification of species according to their extinction would produce damage to the ecosystem in which they live.

The results were exactly the same as those obtained by applying other algorithms much more complicated.

Glyn Davies, director of WWF projects in the UK, welcomed the discovery.

"At a time when the rate of endangered species is increasing, any research that helps strengthen our understanding of the complex world of ecological processes and help us to save species is positive," Davies told the BBC.