  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.
