Résumé
Highlights: • Ecological networks provide knowledge of species interactions in nature. • Existing concepts and tools of networks analysis could benefit risk assessment in weed biocontrol programs. • The potential for a biocontrol agent to disturb the recipient communities can be predicted with ecological network analysis. • The construction of reliable and highly resolved ecological networks requires the selection of suitable methods.Abstract: A key element in weed biological control is the selection of a biological control agent that minimizes the risks of non-target attack and indirect effects on the recipient community. Network ecology is a promising approach that could help decipher tritrophic interactions in both the native and the invaded ranges, to complement quarantine-based host-specificity tests and gain insights on potential interactions of biological control agents. This review highlights practical questions addressed by networks, including 1) biological control agent selection, based on specialization indices, 2) risk assessment of biological control agent release into a novel environment, via particular patterns of association such as apparent competition between agent(s) and native herbivore(s), 3) network comparisons through structural metrics, 4) potential of network modelling and 5) limits of network construction methods