BiMAT: a MATLAB(R) package to facilitate the analysis and visualization of bipartite networks

Abstract

The statistical analysis of the structure of bipartite ecological networks has increased in importance in recent years. Yet, both algorithms and software packages for the analysis of network structure focus on properties of unipartite networks. In response, we describe BiMAT, an object-oriented MATLAB package for the study of the structure of bipartite ecological networks. BiMAT can analyze the structure of networks, including features such as modularity and nestedness, using a selection of widely-adopted algorithms. BiMAT also includes a variety of null models for evaluating the statistical significance of network properties. BiMAT is capable of performing multi-scale analysis of structure - a potential (and under-examined) feature of many biological networks. Finally, BiMAT relies on the graphics capabilities of MATLAB to enable the visualization of the statistical structure of bipartite networks in either matrix or graph layout representations. BiMAT is available as an open-source package at http://ecotheory.biology.gatech.edu/cflores.