PLN Models
Given potential convergence issues with the PLN models, we restricted
our analysis to species that appeared in the dataset at least four times
in each season. This restriction resulted in 36 species in the Fall with
four unique species (i.e. species found only in the Fall), and 35
species in the Spring with three unique species, and a total of 32
species present in both seasons (top panel of Figure 3).
The three PLN models with highest BIC scores in both Fall and Spring
were Site name , Site name + Water temperature , andSite name + Dissolved oxygen (Table 1). For model validation in
the Fall, the model with the lowest RMSE and RMSE obs>0 wasSite name + Water temperature . Although Site name had the
highest BIC score in the Fall, Site name + Water temperature had
only a marginally lower score and it performed the best during model
validation. Therefore, Site name + Water temperature was selected
to construct the Fall species interaction network. In the Spring,Site name had both the highest BIC score as well as the best
predictive performance, and was hence chosen as the best model for the
Spring network.