Cooperation and Stability for Complex Systems in Resource-Limited Environments

Butler, Stacey; O’Dwyer, James P.

doi:10.1101/514018

“…We add to these results by showing that saturating responses with ecological selection is enough to almost guarantee internal stability in both the in the unique and interchangeable interaction models. Another recent line of work by Butler and O'Dwyer [46,47] explicitly modeled species limited by resources that can be produced by other species. This model allows saturating functional responses in mutualisms to emerge endogenously from resource limitation.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The balance of interaction types determines the assembly and stability of ecological communities

Qian

¹

,

Akçay

²

2020

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What determines the assembly and stability of complex communities is a central question in ecology. Past work has suggested that mutualistic interactions are inherently destabilizing. However, this conclusion relies on assuming that benefits from mutualisms never stop increasing. Furthermore, almost all theoretical work focuses on the internal (asymptotic) stability of communities assembled all-at-once. Here, we present a model with saturating benefits from mutualisms and sequentially assembled communities. We show that such communities are internally stable for any level of diversity and any combination of species interaction types. External stability, or resistance to invasion, is thus an important but overlooked measure of stability. We demonstrate that the balance of different interaction types governs community dynamics. Mutualisms may increase external stability and diversity of communities as well as species persistence, depending on how benefits saturate. Ecological selection increases the prevalence of mutualisms, and limits on biodiversity emerge from species interactions. Our results help resolve longstanding debates on the stability, saturation, and diversity of communities.

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“…Even though our model introduced the use of continuous axes for species traits and interactions, we note that the post-hoc binning procedure creates a bridge back to the matrix/network framework that has characterized community ecology studies for decades (2, 4, 13, 14, 21, 23). In this case, however, a multi-layered network perspective would be necessary to accommodate the different kinds antibiotic-mediated interactions (production, inhibition, and vulnerability).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Theoretical and empirical studies have explored microbial interactions with the goal of understanding the mechanisms of species coexistence in hyper-diverse microbial systems. Major examples include models with: (A) mutualistic and cross-feeding interactions (12); (B) resourcebased competitive interactions (13); (C) a combination of mutualistic and competitive interactions (13)(14)(15)(16); (D) stochastic spatio-temporal processes (17,18); and (E) antagonistic interactions due to toxin production (6,19,20).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additional key findings from the resource-based framework are that cooperative (metabolic) interactions can arise spontaneously in complex microbial communities (24) and that a cooperative versus competitive dichotomy of microbial communities may exist, depending on conditions (25). Sometimes, the interactions arising from resource exchange allow systems to bypass classic stability-diversity relationships (13,14). Collectively, these results have tremendously improved our understanding of the factors influencing the development and persistence of microbial community diversity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Higher-order effects, continuous species interactions, and trait evolution shape microbial spatial dynamics

Swain

¹

,

Fussell

²

,

Fagan

³

2021

Preprint

0

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Comprehending the assembly and maintenance of microbial diversity in natural communities, despite the abundance of antagonistic interactions, is a major problem of interest in biology. A common framework to study the problem is through cyclic dominance games over pairwise interactions. Recent papers incorporating higher-order interactions in these models have successfully explained high diversity of microbes, especially in communities where antibiotic producing, sensitive, and resistant strains co-exist. But most of these models are based on a small number of discrete species, assume a notion of pure cyclic dominance, and focus on low mutation rate regimes, none of which best represents the highly interlinked, quickly evolving and continuous nature of microbial phenotypic space. Here, we present a model of species in a continuous space, with mutual higher order interactions, to examine the assembly and stability of microbial communities. Specifically, we focus on toxin production, vulnerability, and inhibition among the simulated species. We observe intricate interaction between certain parameters that generates highly divergent patterns of diversity and spatial community dynamics. We find that spatial properties are better predicted by species interaction constraints rather than mobility, and that community formation time, mobility, and mutation rate best explain the patterns of diversity.

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“…We add to these results by showing that saturating responses with ecological selection is enough to almost guarantee internal stability in both the in the unique and interchangeable interaction models. Another recent line of work by Butler and O'Dwyer [46,47] explicitly modeled species limited by resources that can be produced by other species. This model allows saturating functional responses in mutualisms to emerge endogenously from resource limitation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The balance of interaction types determines the assembly and stability of ecological communities

Qian

¹

,

Akçay

²

2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

What determines the assembly and stability of complex communities is a central question in ecology. Past work has suggested that mutualistic interactions are inherently destabilizing. However, this conclusion relies on assuming that benefits from mutualisms never stop increasing. Furthermore, almost all theoretical work focuses on the internal (asymptotic) stability of communities assembled all-at-once. Here, we present a model with saturating benefits from mutualisms and sequentially assembled communities. We show that such communities are internally stable for any level of diversity and any combination of species interaction types. External stability, or resistance to invasion, is thus an important but overlooked measure of stability. We demonstrate that the balance of different interaction types governs community dynamics. Mutualisms may increase external stability and diversity of communities as well as species persistence, depending on how benefits saturate. Ecological selection increases the prevalence of mutualisms, and limits on biodiversity emerge from species interactions. Our results help resolve longstanding debates on the stability, saturation, and diversity of communities.

show abstract

Cooperation and Stability for Complex Systems in Resource-Limited Environments

Cited by 7 publications

References 58 publications

The balance of interaction types determines the assembly and stability of ecological communities

The balance of interaction types determines the assembly and stability of ecological communities

Higher-order effects, continuous species interactions, and trait evolution shape microbial spatial dynamics

The balance of interaction types determines the assembly and stability of ecological communities

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